


Guardian Chronicle: Nirvana

by STLHero



Series: Guardian Chronicles [1]
Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Memories, Crossover, Eventual Romance, F/M, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Health Issues, Misunderstandings, Multi, Parent Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Past Child Abuse, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Todoroki Shouto Has Issues, Unreliable Narrator, Uzumaki Clan-centric, Uzumaki Naruto Has Issues, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:22:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 56,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27328012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/STLHero/pseuds/STLHero
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto didn't trust anyone- teachers, adults, classmates especially not after what happened after the Valley Of The End. That was why she kept to herself when she came to Japan. But when her Middle School teacher suggested that she should apply for Yuuei High, she began to find herself in a chain of preventable event and learn things about her family that she would have never learnt if she had never gone to Yuuei High.
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Todoroki Shouto/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Guardian Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995253
Comments: 45
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

_“That is a waste of a wonderful Quirk.”_

Naruto slid her orange hoodie over her head as her neighbour marvelled over the Villain. She watched as the Villain wreaked havoc in the train station. The building cracked, sliding down till it crashed hard on the streets. The civilians gawked and whispered to each other, their eyes never straying from the Villain in front of them. There were a couple of girls in the front, cheering and giggling as a couple of heroes stopped the next block of broken building from crashing down on the ground.

Two years ago, a sight like this would have caused her to jump in glee and clapped her hands in excitement. A part of her felt the urge to do it but Naruto held herself back. It was already bad enough she was late for class, if she spent anymore time marvelling about these Quirks then that homeroom teacher was going to scold her so badly.

Still, she couldn’t help but asked:

“What happened?”

Her neighbour still had his eyes locked on the criminal. “He tried to steal someone’s bag and went out of control when the police cornered him.”

_That’s all?_ Naruto glanced at her watch, eyebrows scrunched together as the watch revealed she had only twenty minutes to get to class on time. Was it really worth it? The man was going to be furious over the fact Naruto dared to bring a hoodie to school even though he told her not to do it. Besides, it wasn’t like she made it a habit to be late every day and compared to some of her classmates, she was an angel.

“You can do it, Kamui!” The fangirls cheered as the wooden hero dashed through the water rope made by the other hero. He looked almost kind of cool, not as cool as her but Naruto would admit the suit was amazing. A quick glance to her side and Naruto was taken back by the sight of one of her classmates.

Green hair? Who did she know have green hair? Naruto would be a liar if she said that she knew all of her classmates. She made it a point not to socialize too much with them. They were nice people, don’t get her wrong but Naruto could see they had a habit of discriminating one of her classmates because of his lack of Quirk.

Blue eyes widened when she realized who the bouncing classmate was.

“Your punishment is…”

The tense atmosphere changed to a comedic atmosphere as a giant blond-haired heroine smashed her leg onto the villain’s chin. Silence reined throughout the street as both pedestrian and heroes tried to understand what just happened. Blue eyes just turned completely blank, not revealing to the world about the humour she found in this situation.

She did feel sorry that someone took away his spotlight.

“Gigantification, huh? She looks like she will be popular, and it is an amazing Quirk,” Naruto blinked and robotically turned her head to her mumbling classmates. Blond eyebrows scrunched together as the boy jolted down a couple of notes. “But thinking about the damage to the city that will go hand in hand with that, its use might be limited.”

Words began appearing out of her classmate’s mouth as he continued to deeply analyse what just happened. The more and more Naruto heard, the larger her headache became. For a brief moment she contemplated about leaving her classmate to himself and just start heading back to their classroom.

It would be wrong of her not to remind him that they had a class to go to.

“Midoriya, snap out of it! We have to go to class.” She waited for a minute to see if Midoriya made any indication that he heard her. He didn’t even move his head. Naruto’s eyebrows twitched but the girl held herself back. “Midoriya! Class!”

No movement.

She shook her head and snatched the book from Midoriya’s hands. With his bright green eyes growing large, Izuku jumped up and flushed a light shade of red at the sight of her. She almost felt apologetic for her rude behaviour but Naruto didn’t like being ignored. No one paid much attention to her when she was child, not when she carried a monster inside her stomach.

The only person that seemed to have paid any attention to her was Hinata-chan.

“Naruto-san, I didn’t see you.”

Naruto bobbed and tossed the book to her classmate. “I noticed. We need to start heading to class before Sensei becomes angry that his two prized students are late for school.”

Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck, redness crept up from his neck to his cheeks. Naruto just blinked and almost wanted to ask him if he was starting to get sick. If Midoriya was actually sick then his mother probably wouldn’t have forced him to come to school; maybe he was just some kind of weirdo.

She focused her attention on the notebook in his hands. The cover seemed to be worn down and the number 13 stood out to her as well as the large letters called _Hero Analysis For The Future._ Now, Naruto was not a genius when it came to books but she was observant. It was a side effect of being isolated as a child.

“How many weeks have you been working on that book?” Naruto swung her bag over her shoulder and stared out at the train station. He blinked and the girl turned her blank eyes at him.

“It took me two months to finish this notebook,” Izuku admitted.

Naruto raised her eyebrows. “This notebook? How many notebooks do you have on these guys?”

“T-Thirteen.”

She jerked her head at those words. Thirteen notebooks? If it took him just two months to finish one notebook then he must have spent two years and two months on making all those notebooks. It took a lot of enthusiasm to do something like that. The level of enthusiasm he had could almost rival the enthusiasm she had for pranking. God, the only time she would ever go to the same levels as him was when it came to jutsu.

Naruto used to have joy when it came to being a ninja but after what happened in Konoha, Naruto didn’t have the same pride about her job. She furiously shook her head. _Think of the positive._ Japan was her new start. It was a new beginning for her, one she must never waste.

Even if her nightmares and the voices didn’t let her forget.

“Why do you have so many notebooks?” Naruto asked as they crossed the street leading them to their middle school.

“I-It is going to sound stupid but I want to become a Hero.” Izuku flinched and began to babble. “I know it sounds stupid for a Quirkless person like me to want to become a Hero…but I can’t help it.”

_My dream? My dream is to become Hokage so that everyone can stop disrespecting me and see me as somebody!_

Naruto furiously shook her head and focused all her energy on her classmate, pushing back the nostalgia memory that threatened to consume her. “I think you can become a Hero as long as you work your butt off. People might tell you that you are an idiot, might bring you down but you should ignore it. If you really want it so badly then you should be willing to do anything to get it.”

She felt her smile wobbled but Naruto pushed through it. It was hypocritical of her to say those words to him. There was a time when she dreamt so badly of becoming Hokage. A ninja like her could never become a Hokage.

The council made sure that she could never accomplish her dreams. It was terrible that they forced her hand but Naruto didn’t want Izuku to give up on his dreams. It would break his heart when he gave up on his dreams, all because no one was willing to look past his lack of a Quirk.

She would know just how heart-breaking it could be to give up on a dream.

* * *

Naruto slid into her seat, laid her head on the table and listened passively as her classmates chat to each other about their plans for the weekend. Blue eyes flickered to Bakugou, his lips pressed into a thin line when the boy glared at her. From the moment she came to this middle school, he always gave her those looks.

Sometimes it felt like he was looking at her very soul.

The homeroom door slid open and their homeroom teacher stepped in, carrying a huge stack of papers. Naruto lowered her hoodie, watching the teacher separate the stacks of papers into piles. Were those more forms for them to do? Or was it that piece of paper about their plans for their future school? The fact the old man kept glancing at her made her believe it was the latter.

It probably didn’t help that his eyes flared with disappointment at the sight of her.

“Quit the ruckus and go back to your seats.” Their teacher yelled, slamming his hands on the table. The chatter died down and the students straightened their backs, their eyes growing wide with excitement and weariness. “It has been two weeks since school started and most of you are still acting like little kids. It is time for all of you to start _thinking seriously_ about your future.”

Naruto slid down her seat when the man focused his eyes on her as he stressed out the words _thinking seriously_. Okay it confirmed he read all the forms they gave him. This whole time she thought he was too busy drinking himself silly that he didn’t actually care or read the forms they gave.

“I should hand all of you the career forms but I guess from your school selections that almost all of you want to be heroes,” their teacher levitated the papers towards them. Naruto covered her ears as her classmates cheered at his words. Did these people not realize some people were sensitive to sound? She sighed. “Yes, yes, you all have wonderful Quirks! But using your powers at school is against the rules!”

_You say this every time but you never do anything about it._ Blue eyes stole a glance at her classmate. Midoriya didn’t look bother about the fact everyone kept using their Quirks and when Naruto thought about it, she never saw him stare at these people with jealously or resentment. It really gave something for her to think about. Why didn’t he ever resent them for showing off?

“Sensei! Don’t lump us all in the same group,” Naruto groaned as Bakugou leaned against his chair, not bothering to sound polite to their classmates. Sometimes she considered it a miracle that he had friends with the way he opened his mouth. “I’m not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects.”

_Five…_

_Four…_

_Three…_

_Two…_

_One…_

Roars of outrage burst out of her classmate’s mouths.

“ _That was uncalled for, Katsuki!”_

_“Yeah! Yeah!”_

Naruto just snorted, pink lips almost curled into a tiny smile at the level of confidence that her classmate had. It almost reminded her of the times when she shouted to the world that she was going to become Hokage. There was a time when she would say the exact same thing in the Academy, except Bakugou had the skill to back up his claims. Those muscles and the fact she caught him jogging near her workplace made it clear to her that he wasn’t talking shit.

“Oh if I remember correctly, you want to go to Yuuei High, right Bakugou?”

Everyone became silent for just a few seconds before all hell break loose. Yells and screams of surprise echoed throughout the classroom with the only exception being Naruto. She could only knit her eyebrows. What was the big deal? It was just some fancy high school, wasn’t it? She didn’t see why they were making such a big fuss over it.

“It isn’t just some high school, Uzumaki!”

Naruto jerked her head up and flushed a light shade of red when everyone turned their attention at her. Was this right time to laugh and pretend that she knew this? They would believe her bullshit, wouldn’t they? Well judging from the looks given by both students and teacher, they probably wouldn’t believe the crap forming inside of her mind.

“Yuuei High School was in the top 0.2% this year, you know!”

No, she didn’t know that because Naruto had no plans of going to high school.

“Their acceptance rate is always really low, too!”

She could guess that from the values that they just gave her. Wow, people were right to call her sassy at times because her own thoughts were starting to sound sassy even to herself.

“It is the best high school for heroes,” Midoriya spoke up. Naruto swirled her head at him, blond eyebrows knitted together at those words. Oh now that explained the reason for her classmates acting like this. Everyone in this class kept talking about becoming heroes, which sounds awesome in paper.

If anyone asked Naruto her opinion about the job, she would say that you didn’t need to go to a school to learn it. They could just practise it every day by helping other people and putting someone else’s needs over theirs. Wasn’t that the definition of being a hero? Not that she had any experience when it came to the job.

She was a foreigner after all.

“Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to Yuuei too, right?” Everybody whipped their heads at the green-haired boy; their eyes growing wide with shock. Izuku’s response? He flinched and slid down under the table as if hoping it would be enough for everyone to stop looking at him.

If anything, it just made everyone laughed even harder.

“Why the hell are you laughing? Izuku can get into Yuuei High!” Naruto declared. She straightened her back as everyone swirled their head at her. Anger flared in her eyes and her classmates gulped. It was understandable why when she considered that this was probably the first time they saw her angry.

She never found a reason to be furious.

“He’s Quirkless.” Bakugou snarled at her. “There is no such thing as a Quirkless Hero, Whiskers! He won’t ever become a damn Hero!”

_Is that really what you should say to your best friend?_ Naruto narrowed her blue eyes and chewed the inner corner of her cheek to stop herself from lashing out at him. Her hot temper was the reason she always get into trouble. Hinata always used to scold her for releasing her temper on someone. Sakura used to yell at her whenever she used to unleash it on Sasuke.

He deserved it.

Naruto stared hard at the older boy. “He might be Quirkless but he works hard and he is smart. I think he has a chance of entering Yuuei High! If you can get in then so can Izuku!”

“You are delusional if you think he can get in.” 

There was a storm of emotions inside of her. A part of her wanted to punch him for making that comment, not only because it hurt Midoriya’s feelings. Those words reminded her of the Academy. Those words mocked her and her old dream of becoming Hokage.

They always tried to bring her down but Naruto would always push herself back up. If she gave up on a dream then she wasn’t Naruto Uzumaki.

“Delusional? All of you are fucking assholes for not believing in him!” Naruto yelled. “If he works his ass off and if someone just believes in him then he can do anything.”

Everyone looked at her like she was an idiot but Naruto wasn’t going to back down. She had seen the rewards of hard work, of having someone that believed in them. How many times did someone look down on her? Too many times for her to count. It hurt like hell for her friends and teammates to only see one side of her.

She was so much more than just the prankster.

It was just too bad that no one wanted to see that side of hers.

* * *

“You asked for me?” Naruto took a seat on the empty chair, eyebrows knitted together in confusion as the man pulled out the empty form. He raised his eyebrow at her, waiting for the answers that Naruto didn’t want to provide.

“Why did you hand me an empty blank form when it comes to your future high school?” He finally asked, eyes flaring with irritation. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and forced herself to smile at him. It wouldn’t be wrong for her to act dumb since she actually had no idea what to do with her future.

Doctors didn’t seem to suit her and being an engineer sounded fun, but Naruto doubted she would have free license to be creative. A job as a writer was also good for her. Iruka-sensei used to say she had too much imagination for her own good…of course he was talking about her skill in the art of lying.

“Too many options.”

Her homeroom teacher snorted at her response, not looking like he believed one bit about her bullshit. Her smile didn’t waver one bit even though those judging eyes made her want to stop smiling. There was always something about those eyes that made her want to admit future.

“Really now?” She smiled sheepishly and her teacher sighed. “Uzumaki, why don’t you start taking things seriously? You are a bright girl that clearly has a bright future ahead of herself. It will be a shame for you to decide just to continue working full time in a café.”

_But what do I want to do?_ Naruto knitted her eyebrows together and stared out at the window. The bright blue skies and white clouds didn’t reflect the confusion she felt. At the age of six, she decided she wanted to become a kunoichi. _I will become Hokage! I will be the strongest kunoichi this world has ever seen!_ She yelled out those words so everyone knew what she wanted to be.

How could she accomplish this dream now?

“I like our art classes but I can’t see myself an artist,” Naruto lied. “It is too artsy if you ask me; it doesn’t have enough action. Doctors are cool and I respect them but I am just too hot-tempered for the job. So I have got no idea what to do.”

Her teacher tilted his head, his eyes regarded her for a good couple of minutes. He nodded, looking as if he had one of those eureka moments that Naruto heard her classmates talked about. What could he have figure out from her words? Even for her standards, she sounded like an idiot.

God, had she always sounded like an idiot?

“Then what about becoming a Hero? Or a policewoman?” Her teacher suggested lightly. A small smile played on his lips and the sincerity shone through those eyes made her throat clogged up. A part of her was grateful for the sincerity but a huge part of her felt doubt about the man’s kindness and need to make her choose a better future.

No one could be this nice without any reason.

“Think about it, Uzumaki.” Their teacher took a deep breath. “You want adventure and I know you have a desire to help even the underdogs. Isn’t that enough reason for you to become a hero? You will just be protecting more kids and people like Midoriya from cruel Villains. You might be busy with work but you make the time and effort to protect the weak. I think you have just as a good shot of getting into Yuuei as Bakugou…so think about it.”

Naruto stared at her hands, clenching and unclenching it as her teacher slid the piece of paper to her. A hero? If she couldn’t become Hokage and if she couldn’t be a kunoichi, then it only made sense for her to be a hero.

She couldn’t keep living in the past because that wasn’t her.

Uzumaki Naruto was and will always be the girl that always looked forward to the future.


	2. Chapter 2

** Ten Months Later **

Naruto slapped on a smile as the customers around her chatted and laughed over various topic. _Just keep on smiling._ She took in another deep breath and stretched her lips even further to the point that her cheeks demanded she stopped doing it. Not that she would. This line of work needed her to smile and make jokes like there was no problem.

“Uzumaki-chan, you should take a break and join us!” One of her male customers declared, waving their hand at the empty seat and flashing what Naruto presumed was his definition of a flirty smile.

The whiskered teen only forced out a laugh and shook her head. “I’m still on the clock! Ask me again when I don’t have to serve ya and your friends!”

“You always say that!” The male grumbled, shaking his head at her while his friends patted him on the back. _If y’know I’m going to say that why even bother asking me to sit with you?_ She bit her tongue and forced out one of those air-headed giggles. The male customer flushed a deep set of red and looked away from her while his friends only stared at her.

Well more precisely, they seemed fixated on her _stupid_ skirt.

_“They are probably thinking that you look horrible in that skirt.”_ Naruto plastered on the smile even harder and shoved that horrible voice inside of her head to the back of her mind. Why of all the times that horrible part of her had to come up? She needed to keep up with this stupid act of hers. If she even dared to allow that voice win then this smiling mask would crack.

People were going to see that she didn’t have her shit together and that was the last thing she needed.

“Don’t you have an exam to study for, Naruto?”

  
The blond-haired girl tore her eyes away from the tray and blinked when her boss placed both hands on her hips. _Average._ That was the word she would use to describe her boss appearance. Her boss was a young woman with mousy brown hair and radiant hazel eyes that usually screamed with warmth.

But at that particular moment, those hazel eyes yelled with concern and irritation.

“I do,” Naruto answered, dropping her hands to the side and slipping on the innocent smile onto her lips. “Why do you ask?”

Her Boss only raised one single eyebrow at her. “Didn’t I tell you to take the day off? Or did you think that I wouldn’t try to see whether or not you are obeying my order?”

“Shouldn’t most employers be happy that their employees love their jobs so much that they would come in anyway?” Naruto asked, tilting her head. The young woman did not smile or laugh at those words; only folding her hands against her chest. Her Boss’ thin eyebrows reached even higher and it was not long before the woman shot her an unimpressed look. “What? I’m more than happy to work today!”

“You have got an exam tomorrow!”

_Just because I have an exam, doesn’t mean I am going to skip work for it!_ She sucked in a deep breath and gazed down at her tray. The bitter aromas of the coffee flooded her nostrils while the glimmering shine of the dessert almost brought out a growl in her stomach. She probably should get some take away ramen after this or some burgers after her shift was over.

“It is only the practical exam,” Naruto said. She kept her tone bright and cheerful even when her boss curled her lips into a frown. “The practical exam is going to be a piece of cake for me.”

All she had to do was jump, run or if she was super-duper lucky… _fight_. This part of the entrance exam was not something someone could study. How could you study for practical exams with a textbook? That was impossible. Movement had to be done and experience was probably required too when it came to those types of exam.

Being a former kunoichi meant that she had experiences in spades.

If it had been the theoretical exam then that was a whole different story for her. Maybe it was because of the Academy or maybe it was because she never really bothered to open a book during her time in Konoha, but theoretical exams made her sweat. Her stomach would always roll over and there would always be a moment when her mind went blank.

“Naruto, I know that this isn’t my place but is there a reason you aren’t preparing for your practical exam?” Her Boss asked, lowering her tone slightly and furrowing her eyebrows together. “Are you having trouble at home? Y’know if you want a listening ear then I’m more than willing to be that ear. Everyone who works here is like family to me.”

“I’m fine,” Naruto reassured her. “And there is nothing wrong at home.”

“Naruto, you can—”

“Is this the face of someone having problems at home?” The whiskered teen gestured to her smile and her Boss gazed at her for the longest time. Time seemed to have slow down as she waited for the woman to make her decision. The chatter all around them was muffled against her ears and the movement of her fellow waiters and waitresses seemed sluggish.

Finally, her Boss shook her head and Naruto picked up the tray with one hand. Her blue eyes darted to the number on the tray, ignoring the burning concerned eyes of her boss. _I’m doing absolutely fine! I am not going to talk about some non-existent problem just because she asks me._ There was no reason for her to talk about her problems.

_“She probably wouldn’t give a shit about your problems and past! No one cares about what you went through!”_ Naruto clenched her jaws together and shoveled the voice right back into the imaginary door. The voice might be right. Not a single person would want to listen to her own problems. Humans only cared when it was their own past.

People weren’t kind and for someone like her, she did not deserve that kind of kindness.

_“Since you defended me against Mizuki-sensei, I will let you play with us but it is a one-time thing!”_

It was only when she did something to help them, did someone ever think that they would give her the thing that she wanted. _You are a monster._ Cold black eyes flashed behind her eyes and the whiskered teen felt her lips wobbled slightly. She steeled herself and tightened the screws on her lips before forcing out another laugh.

A hand brushed against her shoulder and Naruto swirled her head around. Brown eyes blinked and the whiskered teen dully realized that her hand had almost reached out to smash her fellow waitress onto the ground. _I need to remember to lower my guard._ She pushed out a nervous laugh before dropping her shoulders. “Y’know I don’t like it whenever someone tries to sneak up on me.”

“Sorry Uzumaki-san, I forget that you are one of those jittery people,” Her fellow waitress flashed an apologetic smile and flickered her eyes to her Boss. “But what’s this about you having a practical exam? Have you really decided to go to high school?”

_Is it any of your business that I’m going to high school or not? Shouldn’t you be focusing on work?_ She chewed on her tongue as her waitress leaned forward. Black pupils bounced with excitement as her colleague leaned forward and backwards like she was high on caffeine.

Actually, sugar seemed more appropriate since her colleague seemed to adore those sugary drinks.

“Naruto didn’t decide to go to any normal high school,” Her boss declared. The whole room grew silent as several eyes fixated on the brown-haired woman. Naruto furiously shook her head and crossed her arms as a proud glint tickled through her Boss’ eyes. “Naruto decided to apply for Yuuei Hero Course.”

Only the sound of spoons and forks crashing onto the table could be heard as everyone jerked their heads at her. Naruto felt all the blood inside of her body rushing to her cheeks as several eyes continued to gaze at her with wonder. _I knew I shouldn’t have told her about which high school I was applying to!_ This would never happen if she kept her mouth shut.

She shifted her eyes away from her fellow waitress and froze when she caught sight of the table just close to the front door. _They are here again._ Those three customers had been coming here for the past year. She didn’t know much about them except for the fact they seemed to be very good friends if their chatter and rowdy laughter told her anything.

_I don’t understand how two people could look so similar to each other but act so differently from each other._

She swallowed down a lump and forced herself to smile at the group, even though her heart throbbed with pain. _It always feel like this whenever those three come._ The ache inside of her intensified whenever her eyes caught sight of the customer, who looked so much like her first friend.

_“Uchiha Sasuke.”_

Shaking her head, the whiskered teen steadied her trembling arms and strengthened the smile on her lips. She took a step forward, only to stop when the lavender-haired girl dashed straight towards her. Those periwrinkle eyes beamed with excitement and Naruto could only blink owlishly when the girl bounced in her spot.

“You are going to be our cute, little junior!” The girl squealed. Naruto took a step back and threw a pleading glance at her boss but the woman only blinked at them as if she was still processing the speed that the older girl ran. “What is your Quirk? Hey, are your whisker marks real? Do they twitch? I really think that they are pretty! Why are you working today instead of studying? Oh and why do you always avoid our table? Tamaki-kun…”

  
The world around her spurn and twirled as the older girl continued to babble with words that were now drowned against her ears. How could she talk so fast? Was this how Kakashi-sensei felt whenever she asked too many questions? Did celebrities feel the same headache whenever those reporters asked questions? If they had to hear questions that never seemed to stop then it was a wonder why not all of them were insane.

_Is no one going to help me? I think I am going to jump from all these questions!_ She snuck a glance at her colleague and the woman only gawked at the babbling girl in front of them. Well now that told her that not even her fellow waitress was going to be of any help to her.

“I’m sorry about Nejire, Uzumaki-san,” The blond-haired member of their tiny group said. He grabbed hold of the bouncing girl and steadied her before shooting a glance at his male friend. The raven-haired boy did not meet his friend’s eyes and the blue-eyed boy laughed before shaking his head. “My name is Togata Mirio, the excited one here is Hado Nejire and Mr. Nervous over there is Amajiki Tamaki.”

Warmth and joy colored his tone as the older boy flashed her a friendly smile. Naruto only bobbed her head and never allowed her eyes to stray towards Amajiki. _Why do you avoid our table?_ Warm black eyes flashed before her and her heart grew even heavier with emotions that she had no desire of acknowledging.

_“Stop pushing yourself so hard! You still need to eat, Idiot!”_

Annoyed black eyes flashed before her eyes again and Naruto swallowed down the lump inside of her throat. _Just one look at him and I will remember past._ Those walls she made would break. No, they would crack because nothing could break down her walls. It had been penetrable in the past but her walls were now like steel.

They weren’t going to break any time soon.

She was never going to go back into that state again.

Inhaling, Naruto smiled even wider and bobbed her head at Mirio before glancing at his friend. She knitted her eyebrows together when Amajiki flushed a faint shade of red. _He is a complete weirdo._ His blond-haired friend stole a glance at his indigo-haired friend before chortling over something.

His female friend glanced at him and smiled faintly before glancing back at her. The blue-haired girl opened her mouth and Naruto scurried away from her. _I don’t have any time for her questions._ Coffee and tea needed to be served. Bills had to be given and there were customers that she needed to charm to get extra tips.

The last thing she wanted was to be around the boy who looked like her very first friend.

* * *

( _Next day)_

_No matter how many times I come here, I still can’t get over how different Yuuei High looks from my middle school and the Academy._

Naruto shut her mouth and took in a lungful of air as her eyes continued to drink in the enormous size of the campus. _I know that this is an elite school._ People always raved about the school and how difficult it was to get in, but the pristine walls and the large glass windows just seemed to highlight how elitist the school was.

She glanced down at her worn-down orange hoodie and straightened her back before shoving her hands into her pockets. _I don’t know how no one else can’t help but marvel about the building._ All the other potential students just strolled in there, only sneaking a glance before walking with a confidence that not even a model would have.

Maybe they came from one of those private schools that she heard the people of Japan have. _It is going to be even more obvious that I don’t come from here._ She licked her dried lips and exhaled. Maybe it would be a good idea for her to just walk out and just go with her final choice of a local high school.

_I think you have a good shot of getting into Yuuei High._

Naruto scowled and dug her hands even deeper into her pocket. _I know if I don’t even try then **he** is going to be giving me a lecture about how I have wasted my potential and all that crap. _She scowled even deeper and stared down at her shoes. Worn down black sneakers graced her eyes, almost reminding her of the fact that she probably needed to throw those shoes away.

_Maybe I should get dark blue sneakers this time around._

Dark blue would make the dirt less noticeable and would look pleasant enough with her work outfit.

“Whiskers!”

Naruto jerked her head and stopped in her tracks as an explosive voice pierced through the air. Several of the students stopped in their tracks, glanced at each other before fixating their eyes on her. _Of all the times he noticed me, he chose now!_ She slapped on a smile and tried not to blink when several of the boys leaned closer. They glanced at her and Naruto stiffened when a heavy hand grabbed her shoulder.

“Are you fucking deaf?” Bakugou demanded as he turned her around. Irritated red eyes greeted her and Naruto’s eyebrows twitched with annoyance. _I’m going to be deaf if you yell at me like that!_ His screams always brought a stabbing sensation in her ears. If people ever thought she was loud then they had never met her fellow blonde.

“I should be asking you that because you are the one screaming like a madman!” Naruto retorted, rolling her eyes at him. Bakugou twisted his lips into an ugly scowl and the whiskered teen froze. A shiver of fear ran down her spine but not because of her classmate’s scowl. No, her classmate could never terrify her with his scowls.

_Why did the Hokage-sama allow **her** of all people to become a kunoichi?_

She furiously shook her head and brought out the smile again. It was in the past and there was nothing about their words that could harm her anymore. Tsunade made certain she was no longer an active kunoichi, so they had their wishes come true. _They will no longer have to worry about me killing one of their children._

“What the fuck are you doing here?” She blinked and jerked her head as Bakugou glared at her with annoyed eyes. “First, it was Deku! And now you!”

Naruto scowled. “Is the _great Bakugou-sama_ annoyed that his wish of being the only student to get into Yuuei Heroic Department might not come true?”

The explosive teen only glared at her and stomped his foot on the ground. “Of course, I’m fucking annoyed. A Quirkless loser decides that because my Gramps campaigned for equal rights in a Hero School means that he has a fucking chance of getting in, and a Barbie decides out of nowhere that she wants to become a fucking hero!”

_You think I wanna be here? I don’t know what to do with my life anymore!_ Becoming Hokage had always been her dream from the moment she entered the Academy. She wanted to become the strongest shinobi in the world and prove to everyone in that sexist village of hers that she was stronger and more capable than any male shinobi.

That a kunoichi did not have to be a medic or be a genjutsu specialist to be considered amazing.

Of course she had no intention of telling him that.

“Sensei wasn’t pleased one bit when I told him I had no plans to go to High School,” Naruto clicked her tongue and locked her eyes on the enormous building in front of them. “You can blame him for your wish not coming true ‘cuz he won’t accept the idea that I don’t have any plans to move away from my waitressing job.”

Bakugou blinked. “Are you fucking insane to continue working in that place?”

“It pays,” Naruto shrugged and flashed him an easy-going smile. “And why are you so shock about my decision? Just because I get good grades, doesn’t mean I like the idea of studying for some job.”

Her classmate bristled. “Because you would be wasting your fucking time working in that shitty place, Whiskers!”

Blond eyebrows rose up to her hairline as her hot-headed classmate folded his arms against his chest. _Is this really Bakugou?_ Her smile almost slipped off her face and her hands almost reached out to check his forehead. She dropped her hand when her classmate took a step back and raised an eyebrow at her. “Why the fuck were you going to check my temperature? I ain’t sick!”

“You have to be sick if you sounded nice,” Naruto stated.

Bakugou growled. “What the hell does that mean? I can be fucking nice, Whiskers!”

“Assholes like you can never be nice and that is a fact,” Naruto informed him with a calm and cold tone. Her classmate stiffened and then recoiled at her words. He opened and closed his mouth like he was trying to find the words to counter argue her statement. It would have been amusing if he could argue whether or not he could be nice.

Not that it would make a difference because nothing about Bakugou screamed nice.

_I doubt he can ever be really nice and I honestly doubt that I can even be a hero._ Naruto could hear light, squeaky footsteps rushing towards her. _Heroes are supposed to inspire people and save people. I couldn’t even do that. Heroes have to be opened, kind and be willing to help everyone. They have to give hope._

“Good morning, Kacchan! Naruto-san!”

Naruto blinked and twisted her head around to meet the excited but nervous eyes of Midoriya. He stood right behind them with a smile that screamed of nerves. From beside her, Bakugou growled and stilted his eyes at the green-haired boy. Midoriya paled and immediately flinched before dropping his head.

  
The whiskered teen pursed her lips into a thin line and engulfed down the urge to smash her foot on Bakugou’s feet. _This is an improvement from 10 months ago._ It would have been a miracle for her classmate not to use his explosive Quirk on Midoriya or not yell at him for greeting him in the morning.

“I’m going ahead.”

Bright blue eyes only watched with a blank stare as the explosive boy stomped away from them. She stared at her classmate’s back for a couple of seconds before directing her attention onto Midoriya. Her green-haired classmate relaxed his shoulders and then frowned. He knitted his eyebrows together like he was confused about this new quiet behavior from their classmate.

Then again, was it still considered new when Bakugou had been acting like this from the moment Midoriya tried to save him from that slime Villain.

_“Y’know he was insane to think that he could save Bakugou! He doesn’t have a Quirk!”_

_“Midoriya never cares about his own life! A hero was going to save Katsuki!”_

She hadn’t been there when it happened but the clip circled around the internet. One of her colleagues showed it to her because the media had been stupid enough to say which high school Bakugou came from. _Everyone was too scared to go and save Bakugou. It was pure luck that All Might had been in the area._ Her classmate must have known because that was the only explanation for his quiet behavior.

“What’s his problem?”

Naruto blinked and jumped up as a brown-haired girl with a bright, curious smile snuck glances at her, Midoriya and then to Bakugou. Pinkness graced her cheeks and for a wild moment, she had the urge to ask if the girl always had a blush on her face. Naruto exhaled and swallowed down the question, choosing instead to observe the girl.

The brown-haired girl tilted her head to the side and stitched her eyebrows together as she continued to stare at Bakugou’s fading back. She leaned forward, upper body brushing against Izuku’s body, and glanced back at them. Her brown eyes gleamed with curiosity and Naruto stared at Midoriya.

Her classmate only flushed a deep shade of red and looked ready to hyperventilate from the touch.

“He is an ass.”

That was the best description to describe her classmate.

“I know everyone is nervous but it doesn’t mean he can use that as an excuse to be an ass,” the girl declared hotly, puffing her cheeks and folding her arms against her chest. Naruto only bobbed her head and glanced at her silent, red-faced classmate before offering a polite smile. _I don’t want to talk anymore_. It seemed like her prayers were answered because the girl cleared her throat and offered them a smile before saying, “Well, good luck with the exam today!”

“You too.”

Naruto waved her hand until the girl disappeared from her sight. Once the girl stepped through the doors, the whiskered teen turned around to inspect her green-haired classmate. _What should I do about him?_ He still looked flush and now his face kept twisting and turning into a very weird expression.

He was also not making any attempt to move from his spot.

_It will be bad if he missed the exam because he is surprised that a girl talked in front of him._

Letting out another sigh, the blonde sighed and lightly whacked Midoriya on the side of his head. Her classmate yelped and jumped up, earning several glares of annoyance from the people around them. _They don’t have to look if they don’t want to._ She curled her lips into a scowl and stilted her eyes at them.

The students gulped and quickly scurried away from them.

“Why did you do that for, Naruto-san?”

“You were creeping me out.”

* * *

_My luck must be crap if I have to be in the middle of Bakugou and Midoriya!_

Naruto sunk deeper into her seat and folded her arms against her chest as Bakugou groaned and threw her a glare before throwing another glare at Izuku. The green-haired boy gulped and then glanced at her. _I don’t know why they put me here!_ The moment they entered through those doors, a student had looked at their examination number before directing her to where they were supposed to be seated.

But if Naruto had to guess the way they chose the seating arrangement, then they seemed to be having students from the same school to sit together. The boys seated right in front of them had the same middle school uniform as well and a quick glance to the left side of the hall showed three girls in the same middle school uniform sitting together as well.

_But_ _what else is the same?_ She glanced down at her registration card. The numbers were going to be different because no one would ever have the same registration number. _But maybe the letters? I mean I have a letter for some strange reason on my card._ C was the English letter on her card.

Tilting her head, Naruto quickly snuck a glance at Midoriya’s card and then scrunched her eyebrows together. _He has a different letter from me._ If she had C then her classmate had B. Was it on purpose? The only way for her to know was for her to glance at Bakugou’s card. _He won’t ever let me look at it and if I even dare to sneak a glance then he is going to throw a fit._

The backdoor opened and the chatter in the room died down as a blond-haired man stepped through those doors. A large smile played on his lips as he walked up to the podium with a bounce in his steps. _I have a feeling that he might give Intense Brow-sensei a run for his money on volume._ Her head throbbed and the blonde closed her eyes.

“For all you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my show today!” His loud voice boomed through the hall. Students slammed their hands together and they shut their eyes. “Can everybody say hey!”

The only response was silence as the students glanced at each other with nervous smiles playing on their lips.

“What a refined response,” Present Mic shrugged and remained unfazed at the lack of response. If anything, the Hero only grinned at them before continuing on. “Then I will quickly present to you the rundown on the practical exam! Are you ready?”

_Will it change anything if anyone says no to you? It will only buy time._ She blew a strand of her stray hair away from her face and pulled her hoodie down. Several people glanced at her with lips twisted with displeasure. _Not my fault, you didn’t think to bring a hoodie._ Their eyes screamed with envy over the knowledge that she brought a hoodie with her.

The exam hall had been freezing during their theoretical exam so it had been reasonable to expect that the whole school was going to be filled with rooms designed to make her shiver to death.

Shaking her head, Naruto flickered her eyes to Izuku. Her Hero Otaku classmate had flushed cheeks and seemed to be inhaling and exhaling in rates that even she would think was not human. Foam seemed to be forming around his lips and the older boy clapped his hands together. The gleam in his eyes reminded her of one of her children customers whenever their parents handed them their phone.

It was oddly cute or rather it was definitely more cute than whenever Sakura and Ino gushed and swoon over Sasuke.

“It’s the Voice Hero, Present Mic! Wow!” Izuku squealed, springing up and down in his seat. “I listened to him every week on the radio. I’m so moved. All the teachers at Yuuei are Professional Heroes!”

“Shut up, Deku!” Bakugou snapped; he didn’t tear his eyes away from Present Mic. The boy quickly shut up, flinching at his childhood friend’s rude words. Naruto flickered her eyes at the blond-haired boy, narrowing her eyes at the harshness of his tone.

Bakugou gave Naruto the middle finger and jerked his head at the podium, signalling her to focus on the exam.

“Naruto-san, are you okay? You have been covering your ears whenever Present Mic talked.” Izuku whispered with a tone of concern. He pressed his lips into a tiny frown and scooted closer to her. The blonde only smiled and bobbed her head before dropping her hands from her ears. She slid down the seat and stared blankly at the excited Hero who seemed almost ready to dance in front of them.

She cleared her throat. “I’m fine but I’m going to end up becoming deaf because of Present Mic.”

“Oh,” her classmate said, curling his lips into a frown. “Does your Quirk make you more sensitive to sound?”

Naruto paused and then bobbed her head at him. Technically the answer was true because Chakra had to be considered a Quirk. It was something she technically inherited from her mother and father, even though it was normal in the Elemental Countries. _But if I claimed that I was Quirkless then I would be discriminated and my abilities won’t make sense in the eyes of the public._ People weren’t stupid enough to believe all of her feats were done through sheer hard-work alone.

Izuku eyed her for a second before looking away from her.

Naruto dropped her smile and just inspected the large screen in front of them. If there was a way to describe how large it was then the best description that she could give, was that it was probably larger than the screen played in cinemas. The screen was stretched to sit the whole width of the hall, probably to allow everyone a chance to have a good look if you asked her.

It was not long before the screen came to life with images of robot. _They look like the same robots on the information flyer, right?_ She glanced down at the flyer and curled her lips into a thin line. Four robots were printed onto the flyer. But the screen only showed three robots out of the four on the flyer.

_“Alright, my exmainees! Let me tell you about how this test will go!”_

Chatter flooded into the hall and Naruto raised an eyebrow when she caught sight of several students tightening their grip on the flyer. Their eyes danced with excitement. From where she sat, she could see that there were even a few students, who wiggled and waggled their tails like a bunch of hyperactive animals.

She rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone from her pocket. A blank screen greeted her and her orange headphones called to her, begging for her to put it into her ear. _I really do want to hear some music and wait for the whole thing to blow over._ It made no difference to her if she listened to the man or not.

This exam was not going to determine her whole future and it was not like she had been dreaming to be a hero since she was a baby.

“All of you will experience a 10-minute mock urban battles after this,” The man swirled his whole body to the right side of the auditorium. He scanned the lit-up faces of the candidates and beamed at them. “You can bring whatever you want with you.”

The screen lit up and several different boxes lit labelled from A to G appeared on the screen. Judging by the letters assigned to her and Midoriya, she guessed the two of them would be in different battle areas. Was it going to be the same for Bakugou too? It would make life easier for everyone if they were all in different battle areas.

If Midoriya and Bakugou were in the same field, then Naruto was certain that neither of them would pass.

“After the presentation, you will head to the specified battle centres, okay?” Silence reined as students from the same school glanced at each other’s cards. Izuku stole a glance at her, a small frown playing on his lips at the assigned battle centre for her, and then glanced at Bakugou’s card.

  
“Oi Whiskers, what battle centre do you have?” Bakugou demanded after taking a peak at Izuku’s registration card.

Naruto blinked and answered. “I got C, why?”

Bakugou darted his eyes at Izuku, who gulped at the ferocity that was his best-friend’s eyes. “Because it means that they won’t let students work with their friends. We got assigned different battle centres. ”

“You are right,” Midoriya stuttered, he glanced again at the two student’s cards. A small frown decorated his lips. “Even though our examinee numbers are sequential, we are assigned to different battle centres.”

Bakugou clicked his tongue. “Damn, now I can’t crush either of you.”

“Ya sure you can beat me in a fight, Bakugou-sama?” Naruto asked, raising a single eyebrow and handing him a mocking smile. Midoriya blinked and turned a ghostly shade of white while her blond-haired classmate bristled. She smiled even wider and tilted her head at him. “Because for all I know, you are all talk and no show.”

Bakugou narrowed his eyes at her. “Wanna make a bet on who could get the higher score?”

“And listen to you whine and bitch about how it is impossible for me to beat you?” Naruto retorted. Bakugou’s shoulders twitched while Izuku furiously shook his head at them. The blonde tilted her head upwards and dug her finger inside of her ears. “No, thank you. I already know I'm going to win the bet.”

The boy threw her another dirty look and folded his arms against his chest with a petulant scowl playing on his lips. Naruto only snorted and then raised an eyebrow at Izuku. Her classmate looked befuddled with their behaviour if those knitted eyebrows told her anything. _Right, he might think it is strange that I’m being civil with Bakugou._ It wasn’t that odd.

They were in the exam hall and it would look bad for both her and Bakugou if they got into an argument in public.

“Three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle centre,” Present Mic continued once all the students finished talking to each other. The screen changed to show three figures not so different from the robots in the student’s pamphlets. “You earn points for each of them based on their level of difficulty.”

The robots faded, only to be replaced by an image of a miniature version of Present Mic attacking them. “Our goal, dear listeners, is to use your Quirks to earn points by restraining the fake villains.”

Naruto frowned and inspected the flyer before furrowing her eyebrows together. _I don’t know much about heroes but don’t heroes rescue people too? Isn’t it the main role of a hero to save people?_ Whenever hero came to her mind, she thought of those people that rescued people from burning buildings. Heroes were the people who saved others.

Sure they fight but Heroes also rescued people too or else there wouldn’t be a need for Heroes in the government. _Something doesn’t feel right about this because only focusing on destroying those fake villains isn’t what heroes should do._ Her hands hovered above her chest, lingering on the one scar that the Kyuubi refused to heal her from because…

_“Let that sever as a reminder of what your action nearly costed us.”_

She shook her head and released the breath that she didn't even know she had been holding.

Present Mic swung his arm and pointed his finger at them. “Of course, attacking other examinees and any other unheroic actions are prohibited!”

“Guess that means you can’t kill your opponent, Explosive Head.” Bakugou grunted and folded his arms against his chest, almost reminiscent of a cute little child. Well maybe cute little child wasn’t the word Naruto would use to describe the angry boy.

A cute, angry kitten maybe.

“Excuse me sir, I have a question!”

Naruto moaned and slumped in her seat, silently eyeing the clock on the wall. There were going to be behind schedule because of that asshole. Because once someone had a question then the examiner would have no choice but to answer him. _Then it will just drag on and on until you just want to scream at them._ Time was money and unlike some people in this room, she had a job.

If she was late for her shift then her pay would be lower and then she would have to demand for overtime from her boss. _She probably won’t even give me this overtime and will tell me that it is a sign from the universe to take a break._ The woman would find any excuse not to have her work because apparently she believed she was overworking herself to death.

She was not.

“Okay!” Present Mic pointed to the boy, who stood several meters ahead of them, and a spotlight sudden appeared at him. Nerd was the first thing that came to Naruto’s mind when she had a better look at the teen. Nothing really stood out about him, except for those old-style glasses and the fact he looked like he could be someone’s Dad.

The rigid posture spoke volumes of just how straight-laced the boy was. Guys like those were kill-joys; they used to ruin her pranks in the Academy.

“On the printout, I see there are four types of Villains.” The boy announced. He held up the printout for everyone to see, pointing at the Villain figure they hadn’t seen in the video. “If that is a misprint, then Yuuei, the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake. We examinees are here in this place because we wish to be shaped into model heroes.”

_Right, I keep forgetting that people have been dreaming their whole life for this career._ Naruto bowed her head down and felt a deep sense of shame creeping up to her stomach. There were people out there that wanted to have this amazing career and climbed up in the world. They knew what they wanted out of life. They had never ever experienced what it was like to see the reality of their career.

They haven’t had their dreams crushed into oblivion yet.

“In addition, you over there with the curly hair—” Midoriya pointed at himself, green eyes growing wide with fear as the boy stilted his eyes at him. “You have been muttering this entire time, stop it. It is distracting! If you are here on a pleasure trip, then you should leave immediately!”

Midoriya squeaked, covered his mouth and mumbled, “I am sorry.”

_Not my business._ Naruto stood up from her seat, earning frowns from the people around her as Midoriya stared at her with confusion. She was an idiot. This wasn’t her fight. The boy was her classmate, nothing else. There was no reason for her to yell at him.

But her classmate looked so sad and hurt at that comment; she couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.

“Maybe he is distracting you because you put your mind with him,” Naruto said slowly. “He is nervous about this damn exam. Be fucking considerate of other people too, don’t just fucking think about yourself. The people behind me didn’t have a problem with his behaviour, didn’t even tell him to shut up. So deal with it.”

Midoriya blinked like he always did whenever she defended him. He opened his mouth, maybe to say an apology but Naruto waved him off. Everyone else broke out in whispers as the boy pushed his glasses against his nose, irritated at her calling him out.

It was Midoriya’s fault for calling out her protective instincts.

“Calm down you two,” Present Mic said, waving both his hands at them. He gave a thumbs-up to the boy. “Examinee number 7111, thanks for the great message. The fourth type of villain is worth zero points. That guy is an obstacle, so to speak. There is one in every battle centre—an obstacle that will go crazy in narrow spaces. ”

The students frowned.

  
“It is not impossible to defeat, but there is no reason for you to defeat it, either.” Present Mic explained. He flashed them a smile and swung his arm up in the air. “I recommend that you listeners try to avoid it.”

Naruto raised her eyebrows. She pressed into a thin line and stared down at the handout. Avoid a Villain? Weren’t Heroes supposed to charge after any kind of villains? It shouldn’t even matter if it had points or not. She might not be the best example of what a hero should be, but Naruto knew what a hero was.

A true Hero would attack even if the villain might not bring any benefit to them. They would attack even if they knew it would be difficult to beat them, because Villains were always dangerous people. They hurt people, ruined them to the point that they didn’t know what was right and wrong and because people’s lives needed to be saved. This was the reason people like them were considered Heroes.

They trusted the village too and saw all of its beauty in people.

All Naruto could ever see was just how cruel and evil people can be, and this was the reason she could never truly become a Hero.

She was just too broken for the job, but it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.


	3. Chapter 3

_How much money does this school have?_

Naruto stretched her back and leaned forward as her eyes took in the looming gates that stood right in front of them. From the little gaps between the gates, she could make out streets alongside other various buildings that made up cities. _I knew the school was for the elite but this really screams we have a lot of money._ She knitted her eyebrows together and exhaled.

It made sense that the government of Japan put a lot of money into them because they had so many heroes graduating from this school. _I remember that one of the customers say that All Might and Endeavor graduated from this school._ The whiskered teen poked her tongue against her cheek and pulled her leg behind her back for another stretch.

She flickered her eyes to her fellow examinees. Almost all of them gazed at the gates with cocky smirks playing on their lips and body trembling with what could only be excitement. There were only a few candidates who seemed to be gulping and twisting their clothes at the sight of the enormous gates. Their reaction made far more sense than the other candidates.

They understood that their dreams of being a student of Yuuei High Heroic Department might just crumble in the upcoming hours.

_I wonder if everyone here had similar reasons for choosing this kind of occupation like the children back in Konoha._

She pulled her hood up and gazed up at the clear blue sky. There were so many children who wanted to become shinobi back in Konoha and the other hidden villages but only a selected few would actually become shinobi. _Most of them believe they had good reasons for becoming shinobi._ A pair of green eyes flashed before her eyes.

_“Why did I-I join the Academy, Ino-chan? My parents are shinobi so shouldn’t I have to be a shinobi like them?”_

A sharp intake of her breath and the whiskered teen glanced down at her feet. That had been one of the reasons that some of the kids in Konoha chose this kind of career. _I can’t exactly remember my reason for becoming a kunoichi._ It had been so long since that first day of the Academy, where they had to introduce themselves to their teacher.

_“Well we know that Ino-chan chose to become a shinobi because she is the heiress of the Yamanaka clan! But my reason for becoming a kunoichi is because Mom says that if I wanna find a good husband then I have to join the Academy!”_

That definitely had never been her reason at the age of six because the thought of marriage always made her wrinkle her nose.

_“Besides the fact that being a shinobi is so cool? I wanna be a shinobi because they get paid more than my parents job!”_

What did his parents do for a living, she couldn’t recall but the whiskered teen knew there were some truth behind those words. If a shinobi did a B-rank or even a C-rank mission then their pay was so much higher than the average civilian in Konoha. D-ranks paid as much as her part-time job in the café which spoke volumes of the pay level in Konoha.

_“Look at that shinobi! Isn’t he so cool?”_

That was probably her main reason for becoming a shinobi. _I know it was a terrible reason for becoming a kunoichi._ There should have been a more noble reason for picking this kind of occupation, but it worked for her. She never once lost sight whenever that memory came to her mind. Every drop of blood, sweat and tear that came out of her was for her to reach that point where kids and adults looked at her with the same adoring eyes.

But then it… _changed_.

_“Can you understand not having a dream? Not being needed by anyone and that every day that you are alive, you are in pain?”_

Until that first _real_ mission, she clung to the belief that shinobi were cool people that protected the village and that her enemy was nothing but monster. But the reality was so much different from what she knew. Haku was her enemy but he had been just the same as her and Sasuke. They weren’t so different from each other; the only difference was that Haku had been stronger than either her and Sasuke.

_“When someone has something or someone who is important to them, then that is when they can truly become strong.”_

She doubt that was true.

_“Naruto, can’t you read the mood? I was so close to getting a date from Sasuke-kun!”_

How could someone ever get stronger if the people she loved, didn’t love her back? Could a person grow stronger if no one returned back the same love and care? Did that _strange_ belief Haku had, only applied to himself? Or did that apply to everyone? These questions would echo in her mind whenever she laid down in her bed. _I don’t know if I would ever figure out._ Maybe one day she would figure out the answer.

Maybe one day, she would find that precious person in her life.

“Okay, start!”

A loud voice pierced through the air and Naruto jerked her head upwards. She twisted her head around and relaxed her shoulders at the sight of her fellow examinees twisting their head around to gawk at the tower. _Great, I’m not the only one not paying attention._ Her eyes flickered to the gates and the blonde thinned her lips.

Those gates were definitely opened and that meant they only had 15 minutes to get those points.

Taking a deep breath, the whiskered teen placed her fingers together into a familiar hand seal. _Even if I don’t have a good reason for becoming a hero, I am not going to half-ass things._ A white smoke exploded into the scene and her fellow examinees turned around to gawk at her. They blinked and paled at the sight of her hundreds of clones.

“Shit, she can make clones!”

“If we don’t hurry up—”

“—Then we are never going to get any points!”

The whiskered teen only rolled her eyes before dashing straight through the gates. She didn’t need to turn around to know her clones were following behind her. Their loud steps and laughter were all the answer she needed. _They should be a little bit more gentle with them._ The loud crash alongside the scream told her that her clone might have pushed someone out of the way.

One of her clones waved their hand at her before sprinting to one of the streets. Naruto bobbed her head and watched with blank eyes as more and more of her clones began to split away from her. _Being divided is better for now._ Not once during the presentation, did Present Mic informed them about the minimum threshold needed to pass this part of the exam.

An empty street greeted her and Naruto slowed down in her sprint. Nothing out of the ordinary. No broken walls and the lack of wheels screeching against the road informed her that there was no robots here. _Where would these robots come from?_ She knitted her eyebrows together and flickered her eyes around the streets.

_If I was certain I did well in the theoretical exam then I wouldn’t have to worry about how many points that I will get._ More chakra pumped into her legs and the whiskered teen scanned through the empty streets. _Did I even do enough to pass the theoretical part of the exam? I felt confident last week when I was done with the exam, but that doesn’t mean I did well._

A slab of concrete smashed onto the road and Naruto stopped in her tracks. A single red eye locked onto her, its red light flickering at her and the blonde pressed her lips into a thin line. She clenched her hands into a fist, nails digging into the palm of her hand. Blood dripped out and the whiskered teen made a mental note to cut her nails.

A claw reached out to her, ready to slash her and the whiskered teen launched herself. Her fist smashed into the robot and a loud bang stroke through the air. Slabs of metal broke apart and flew towards the concrete, slamming towards the concrete wall. Naruto did a backflip and landed on her feet before staring at the concrete wall.

The metal broke through the wall and left behind a huge gaping hole that showed empty rooms.

_I might not have a Kekkei Genkei but no one could ever say I wasn’t born with a strength that can destroy a building._

One of her fellow examinees stopped running and turned his head to look at her. His red eyes stared at her slender arms before darting to the huge hole in the wall. Naruto inspected the boy, who looked at her with eyes wide with disbelief. His whole body trembled and the male dropped his shoulders before glaring at the sky.

“How the fuck are we going to get any points?” The boy screamed. “We have someone who can make clones and have inhuman strength! Of all the Quirks today, why did we have to get someone so OP?”

_What the hell does OP mean?_ Naruto scrunched her eyebrows together before shaking her head. This was definitely not the time for her to ponder over what the boy meant. They still had 14 more minutes before the school decided that their time was up. 14 more minutes before they were allowed to change and go back home…

…Or work in her case.

It was becoming increasingly clear to her that the more she combed through the streets, the less robots there were for her to fight. _Maybe, I shouldn’t have made too many clones._ She wiggled her fingers and scowled. Punching that robot had felt so good. At that moment, her fist sang with pleasure of finally hitting an object and a shiver of delight ran down her spine at the knowledge that she still had it in her to make that kind of punch.

Naruto paused and eyed the trembling boy right in front of her. She curled her lips into a thin line as a robot raised its hand at the boy, no doubt ready to slice through the male. The boy’s eyes flickered to her and his eyes screamed for her to help him. Naruto stared blankly and without a second thought, she hurled her fist at the robot.

_Even if he hadn’t begged for me to save him, I would have done it already._ Wind blew against her hair as the robot split into half. Electricity hissed and crackled while the slab of metal collapsed onto the streets. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ears and twisted her whole body around to gaze at the trembling male.

The boy just stared at her like he didn’t know what to make of her. _I know he didn’t think my fist could hold that much strength._ She knew there was this idea that someone with her strength should be bulky, not slender. The fact that her hair was long and not a pixie-cut like those characters in those videos games meant she probably did not fit the stereotype that people had of people with her strength.

_“You? You are going to become Hokage? Oi Deadlast, don’t you know that the Hokage has to be strong and smart? And a boy? You should be like the other girls and focus more on your terrible genjutsu! Kunoichi are meant to support the shinobi! Not lead them!”_

Tsunade proved that the Hokage didn’t have to be a male but she wasn’t going to fit into the stereotypes that people had of her.

She was going to be more than that.

“T-Thank you for saving my ass!”

_What?_ The blonde tilted her head and scratched her neck as the boy bowed to her. He raised his head and offered her a nervous smile, lips wobbling slightly, and Naruto just stared at him. What was he trying to do with thanking her? What did he gain from thanking her? Was he trying to use this as a tactic to lower her guard and find a way to earn points? Why was he even thanking her?

Why would anyone ever thank her for this?

_“I told Sakura that you were the one to save her when I couldn’t do a good job of protecting her.”_

“You’re welcome,” Naruto said, plastering a smile on her face. “But anyone would have done what I did.”

If not because that was the right thing to do, then it was because they wanted points. Right now, she doubt that the thing on everyone’s mind was to save someone. _Saving someone when it could cost them time and points was the last thing on their mind._ It was a luxury they couldn’t afford but a luxury that she could afford.

Her clones made it possible for her.

With one last wave, Naruto dashed away from the male and resumed her search for more possible points. _Will they test us on technique too? Should I show off the Rasengan?_ As soon as the idea came to her mind, she dismissed it. Even though she had a lot of chakra, it was still going to be a waste of chakra for her.

“Take that sucker!”

Naruto blinked and then groaned when she saw her clone grabbing a hold of the robot’s head and ripped its head away from its body. Her clone jumped away from the clone, pumped her fist up in the air and turned around as the Three-Pointer robot fell to the ground. Fire lit up from behind her clone, almost making her clone look like an angel coming out from the fire.

_‘Monster.’_

Maybe monster was a better description.

“Boss, do you see how awesome we are?” Her clone bragged, jumping up and down in the air. Naruto felt her lips twitched and the whiskered teen quickly schooled her expression into a blank one as her clone waved her hands at her. “You think we are going to impress those old geezers up there in that tower?”

“We will impress them if we break whatever record they have,” Naruto grumbled, shaking her head. Her clone pouted and folded her arms against her chest before stamping her foot on the ground. _It still feels so weird that I’m arguing with myself._ Shaking her head, the blonde flickered her eyes from the broken remains of the robot before looking back at her clones. “How many points did you get?”

Her clone blinked and tilted her head to the side before holding her hands out. _Is she calculating how many robots she encountered on the way here?_ That would make sense. Her clones shared the same abilities as her and math had always been her best subject. Numbers were easier for her to deal with and there was always a right and wrong answer to it.

“With ten 3-pointer robots, we have 30 points,” her clone summarized. “And well I fought six 2-pointer robots so that should be around 12 points as well and if I add them together then we have 42 points so far.”

Naruto bobbed her head. “If the other clones follow a similar pattern, then we can blow this thing out of the park.”

Someone cleared their throat and the whiskered teen felt her eyebrows twitched when her clone flashed her a smile before running away from her. _Of course, I’m going to run away from interacting with people when there are points that I have to get._ Naruto scowled and pinched her nose before twisting her body to stare at the person who interrupted her conversation with her clone.

“What?” She barked. The purple-haired boy faltered slightly before puffing his chest at her. There was a scowl playing on his lips but the blonde did not miss the way those beady eyes seemed fixated on her chest. Naruto could feel her blood boiling up with irritation and anger at the lust coming out of the boy’s eyes alongside the drops of saliva leaking out of his mouth.

_Why the fuck do I always attract creeps?_

“You ruined one of my traps!” The boy finally cried. “So you have to pay me—”

“—Do I look stupid enough to not know what the hell you want from me?” Naruto asked, kneeling down till they were at eye level. She stilted her eyes and scowled. _He is damn lucky that Present Mic mentioned we can’t hurt our fellow candidates._ “If you want any sexual favor from me then you have more luck with a prostitute! Where the fuck do you think we are? In some kind of erotic book?”

The boy gulped and looked away from her eyes. “But you ruined one of my traps!”

“If you come to my workplace, I will tell my Boss to give you a drink on the house,” Naruto stated, rolling her eyes at him. She twisted her body away from him and flickered her eyes to the clock on the tower. _We have probably another six more minutes._ The scowl on her face deepened and the whiskered teen tore her eyes away from the tower.

Explosions echoed throughout the arena. Naruto jolted and glanced at the flushed purple-haired boy before sprinting away from him. _Why the hell did I waste so much time talking to that pervert?_ She still needed to get points. There was no time for her to get distracted. So what if she ruined his trap? This was an exam.

It was expected that there was someone who was going to destroy the robot, before that robot could get stuck on those weird purple balls in the ground.

_“Shit!”_ The blonde paused and turned her head around, only to frown at the sight of a slab of concrete crushing on an orange-haired girl’s leg. The girl must have a quirk that made her hands bigger because her hands looked large enough that they could wrap themselves around her own body. Orange eyebrows scrunched together and those large hands tried to push the slab of concrete off of her leg.

Naruto frowned and slid her legs backwards as a 3-pointer robot charged straight towards the girl. _I have to be quick._ She jumped and swung her leg against the robot. The piece of metal flew away from her leg and crashed against a 2-pointer robot. Both robots exploded and pieces of metal scattered around, scattering like autumn leaves.

“Thank you.”

The blonde bobbed her head and inspected the orange-haired girl. The slab of concrete was probably the same size of the average Japanese male in length and laid on the girl’s ankle. _It is way too large for someone to carry with their hands._ Unless they had her inhuman strength or knew of a way to enhance their strength without chakra, it was going to be impossible for them to lift that slab of concrete.

She pressed her lips into a thin line and surveyed the streets. Almost all of the candidates were fixated on defeating the remaining robots and not a single one of them even glanced at her or the orange-haired girl. _Why are they ignoring a bigger problem? Don’t they know that heroes don’t just fight?_ Naruto flexed her eyebrows together and took a step forward to the orange-haired girl.

_“Why didn’t you rescue him, Naruto? You promised me that you were going to save Sasuke!”_

Heroes were meant to rescue and she was probably the last person to be called a hero. An image flashed before her eyes. Bloodied lips and faded brown eyes stood right in front of her. For one terrifying second, her hand didn’t really look like her own hand. Her nails were elongated and the scene right in front of her warped.

Bloodied lips flashed before her eyes and faded brown eyes greeted her.

_“Why?”_

Naruto opened her mouth and felt her whole body trembled with an emotion that she couldn’t identify. She reached her hand out, no doubt to smack the image but then the image faded. A sobbing orange-haired girl replaced the image and Naruto blinked. Dimly, she realized that there was now sweat clinging to the back of her neck.

She shook her head and knelt down. Her hand reached out to the concrete and with a deep breath, the whiskered teen lifted the slab of concrete over her head. Birds chirped as the orange-haired girl gazed at her with eyes wide with disbelief. The whiskered teen cleared her throat and held her hand out to her.

“I can hold this for a long time but I don’t think it is safe for you to be stuck there,” Naruto observed. The orange-haired girl blinked and smiled slightly before grabbing her hand. Her hand whined with tiredness as the girl took her time to crawl out of there. _Be patient._ She steadied her hand and dropped the concrete when the was girl was now sprawled right next to her.

The blonde rubbed and massaged her shoulder before glancing at the orange-haired girl. She knitted her eyebrows together into one thin line when the girl offered her a warm smile. _Why?_ Images of scowling faces played before her eyes. Memories flashed before her eyes and her heart throbbed even more with that ache that never really seemed to fade.

_I helped her._

That was the reason the girl smiled at her.

“Thank you for saving me,” the girl said with a large smile playing on her lips. “I would still be in pain if it wasn’t for you.”

Nodding, the whiskered teen knelt down again and inspected the leg. _With that large concrete on her leg, it will be a miracle if she doesn’t have any pain._ Her fingers pressed lightly against her leg and a cry erupted from the orange-haired girl. Naruto twisted her head and glanced at the girl again.

Orange eyebrows knitted together and Naruto grimaced when the girl let out a tiny whimper. _Medic stuff always bored the living shit out of me._ She should have paid more attention whenever Sakura used to go on tirades about her and Sasuke taking things too far in their training. Her former teammate must have ranted at one point about the difference between a sprained ankle and a broken leg.

_Maybe it is better to take her to the nurse._

With pieces of metal flying everywhere alongside the rubbles of concrete slapping the ground, this was definitely not a place where an injured person should be. _Can I just walk out of here with the girl and not get into trouble?_ She curled her hand into a fist and tilted her head to the side as green eyes continued to stare at her with befuddled eyes.

Should she just put the girl in that corner and just pray that her fellow candidates were going to pay attention to her?

_Could I live with myself if that girl got injured because of my stupid desire to get more points?_

No, no amount of points was worth this.

A weary smile played on her lips as her hand came together into a familiar hand seal. _Just one clone._ White clouds of smoke filled the area as a squeaky pop struck through the air. This was probably going to bite her in the ass but it had to be done. Even if it was a waste of chakra to make a shadow clone, this was the best option for the both of them.

“I would take you to the nurse but I have no fucking clue where the infirmary is,” Naruto explained. Her fellow candidate blinked before letting out a tiny squeak of surprise when her clone picked her up like one of those princes in those stupid romantic movies that Sakura loved to watch. _Must my clone do that?_ It had been stupid in the movie and it was even more stupid now in real life. “So my clone is going to take ya there.”

The girl only blinked. “W-Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Naruto raised an eyebrow as the girl frantically looked from her smiling clone to her. “You are injured and I will be heartless if I left you here to get even more badly injured!”

The girl shook her head. “No, I mean why are you wasting time helping me? Don’t you wanna get more points?”

“You are _badly injured_ ,” The whiskered teen repeated. She lowered her hands and flickered her eyes at the chaos around them before looking back at the curious green eyes of the girl. “Before I can even be a good hero, I should be a decent human. Leaving you here will make me a horrible person and that matters more to me than being a hero.”

What was the point of being a hero if you couldn’t even be decent to the people around you?

Her clone smiled and vigorously bobbed her head before sprinting away from her. Green eyes continued to stare at her like she didn’t know what to make of her words. Naruto smoothed her expression into a pleasant smile and waved her goodbyes to the girl before turning her heels away from her. _Maybe I’m weird._ Maybe it didn’t matter what kind of person you are if you became a hero.

The window, right in front of her, screamed and shattered into a million pieces. Naruto took a step back and grimaced when the ground below her groaned and rumbled with displeasure. Something was definitely not right. It was never _ever_ good news whenever the ground began to shiver and buckled. A shiver of displeasure erupted down her spine.

There was no way that the school would actually put people in danger, right?

_These kids were civilians, who had never seen combat until now, and there was no way that they would have the ability to handle a scale of attack this big._

It was wrong and that was saying something when she was a kunoichi.

_I should run away because that is what is expected for someone normal and I have been trying so hard not to get noticed._

She took a step forward as the rumbles grew even more intense. Her leg wobbled from the roads bouncing up and down like a bouncing castle and the whiskered teen stuck her feet down on the ground. _I know that the examiner said that we can avoid it, but if no one stops that robot then someone is going to get hurt._ The whiskered teen inhaled and slapped on a smile as she took a step forward.

“Are you insane?” An examinee yelled, turning his head around to gawk her. Naruto blinked and frowned as the boy waved his hand at her. _Does his Kekkei Genkei have anything to do with his elbow?_ His elbows did remind her of one of those cylinder tape dispenser that she used to have lying around in her apartment. He shook his head. “That 0-pointer is heading our way! The examiner wasn’t kidding when he said you should run away!”

Naruto exhaled. “People are going to get hurt if you don’t destroy it!”

“You aren’t going to get any points!” The boy cried. Naruto nodded and inspected her hands carefully. Her hands might be small but it could make a big enough impact that the robot could be shattered into million pieces. It could ease everyone’s worries. _Isn’t that more important than some stupid points?_ It didn’t really matter to her if she didn’t get any points.

She was never meant to be a hero.

“I don’t really care about points,” Naruto admitted, balling her hands into a fist. “If I cared about points then yeah I would run away, but people are going to get injured if someone doesn’t try to stop that robot.”

The boy threw his hands up in the air. “Why the hell would you care about that? You should value your own life!”

“But how can you call yourself a hero if you are willing to let people get injured because you are too scared?” Naruto demanded, scowling. The black-haired boy blinked and blinked as the blue-eyed girl took in another deep breath. Her ribs stretched and began to let out a cry of relief when a clear crack sound echoed between them. “A hero should be willing to sacrifice their life and be willing to do whatever it takes to destroy that villain, even if they are scared for their life.”

_Idiot! Why the hell are you attacking him! I told you to run!_

Black eyes only stared at her like he found her to be the weirdest person in the world and Naruto shook her head. Maybe it was odd to have such beliefs to them. But this had always been her belief. Maybe it was because she had the Kyuubi inside of her. The beast had always healed every injury she ever, which meant there had never been a time when the thought of dying from her injury came to her mind.

_That scar on your chest will serve as a reminder to you of how close you were to dying, Brat! It is my own good-will that kept you alive all these years!_

She tightened her fist and rushed forward as the robot turned its head at her. _Boom._ The metal crumbled and screeched before blowing up into pieces. Wind blasted out from the robot and smashed her against the wall. Naruto could feel her back groaning out in pain but that didn’t really matter to her. What mattered to her was focusing on the robot in front of her.

Clouds of smoke filled the air as more and more scraps of metal crashed down to the ground. _It kinda looks cool._ Blue eyes lit up with confusion as a piece of tape wrapped around her waist. Looking down, Naruto creased her forehead as black eyes just stared at her with disbelief. She cracked her knuckles and prevented a yelp to escape from her lips when the boy pulled her down to the ground.

“Thanks.”

The boy only stared at her. “You destroyed that robot with one punch.”

Naruto only scratched her head and just stared at the fire crackling before them. _The Old Hag probably would have destroyed that robot even better than me with her chakra enhanced strength._ She slid her hands into her pockets and lowered her hoodie before turning her whole body around.

Claps broke out and the whiskered teen rubbed the back of her neck as her fellow candidates gazed at her with their jaws slacked open. Their eyes looked at her like they saw her as a hero for destroying that robot. Naruto only tilted her head down, fixating her attention on the ground as her fellow candidates continued to stare at her with admiration.

_The last thing I ever imagined was for people to look at me like I’m a hero._

Did she even deserve to be looked up to as a hero?

Heroes were people who should be able to inspire trust and should be able to trust the people around them. How could she ever fully trust people? To have that same naïve belief that everyone was born good? People weren’t good. She was definitely not a very good person. That naïve girl who didn’t understand betrayal, died the day when her two friends betrayed her.

Could she really be a hero with all that happened to her?

_I am going to try and be the best hero that I can be._

Maybe she was not going to become like those flashy heroes on television, because it never felt like those heroes would put the well-being of others first. Not once had she ever seen or heard of heroes helping or doing incentives to help children who had been abused. _They always seemed to focus on the other things._ Children like her had never been the type that the media loved to portray as being heroes.

_The Fourth Hokage wanted you to be seen as a hero, Naruto-chan._

Maybe it was wrong of her, but she wanted to prove to the world that even a child with her background was more than capable of becoming a hero.

That she was more than what society expected from her, and she was going to prove it even if it killed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should warn anyone that reads this story that Naruto is going to be different. While I enjoy reading how much of a goofball Naruto is, a person like Naruto would have a lot of emotional scars if they took the time to consider things. So you have been warned and please do not come to me about it.
> 
> The whole story will have changes from canon but that is to be expected with the inclusion of Naruto. 
> 
> Please do share your thoughts on the comment below and tell me of your thoughts on this chapter. Do leave kudos if you liked it.


	4. Chapter 4

_“You know when most kids get their letters from their first choice, the last thing they plan to do is work their asses off.”_

Naruto put down the dirty plates and swirled her whole body around to face her boss as the lively chatter in the kitchen died down. She could feel several eyes fixated on them but the whiskered teen locked her eyes on her frowning boss. The young woman waved the white envelope containing the Yuuei logo.

_“Did she get in?”_

_“Why hasn’t she opened her letter?”_

Those two questions floated around as her boss continued to stare at her with a frown. She still kept waving the envelope like she wanted the answers to her question. Why did her boss care? She might be one of the best employees that her boss had but the woman shouldn’t be questioning her about why she wanted to work on the day that she got her results.

“Do you have to go through my stuff, Boss? You know that this is technically considered an invasion of privacy!” Naruto stomped to her boss and tried to reach her hand out to the envelope, but unfortunately her boss had a Quirk that gave her whole body an elastic quality. Her boss stretched her arm until the back of her hand smacked against the ceiling. 

Her boss looked unfazed and only raised an eyebrow at her. “Why didn’t you open it?”

“Does it matter? And why did you look through my stuff?” She glanced at her fellow employees and they gulped before going back to the frying pans. Those people acted like she was going to murder them for even looking at her. If she wanted to throttle someone then it would be the boss, who decided to ruffle through her stuff when she hadn’t been looking for once.

The young woman eyed her and slowly nodded her head. “There have been customers coming in and bragging about which high schools that their kids had gotten into and you didn’t even tell me whether or not you got in!”

“High school is the least of my concerns, Boss.” Naruto leaned against the counter and folded her arms against her chest.

Her Boss threw a hand up in the air and looked at her with disbelief. “What can be more important than High School?”

_“My bills.”_ She stressed the word out to the young woman and just like a magic spell, the frown on her boss’ face deepened. The young woman brought her hand back down as the chatter in the kitchen died down again. Why did everyone have to stop talking when she kept pointing something like this out? And why did her fellow co-workers winced whenever she said those words?

It wasn’t a huge deal that she was an orphan.

She opened her mouth to spat those words to them but the words died down when she caught sight of the sad smile on her boss’ lips. Those brown eyes seemed ready to well up with tears. For some very odd reason, her throat just tightened up in response. The fact her boss looked like she wanted to sob should not be the reason for her strange reaction.

“I keep forgetting that you aren’t like all of my other employees,” her boss sniffed. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and looked away from her teary-eyed Boss. “I just keep forgetting about the fact that you are an orphan and you don’t even talk about your problems. You never even talked about your parents or tell me if you missed them or not.”

“I can’t talk about something that I never had.” She kept her tone impassive and looked to the window. From the reflection on the mirror, the blonde could see her fellow workers staring at her like they didn’t know what to make of her. Of course, they didn’t know what to say or think about her because they hadn’t been in her situation.

The whole reason she didn’t like talking about her past was because of _this._

_“You didn’t even know your parents.”_

Cruel black eyes crashed right in front of her and her heart began to twist and ache again. Naruto cleared her throat and felt a burning sensation behind her eyes. It had been nearly two _long_ years since the asshole reminded her of that painful fact. How the fuck could she be stupid to even think that the asshole would care about her.

Well at least she knew she could never count on the bastard and that not even her fellow orphans could understand her pain.

“You never had parents? Not even foster parents?” Naruto kept quiet and that only made her boss ask even more questions. “Didn’t your parents have any relatives to take you in? Maybe friends? They couldn't possibly decide to just leave a child to fend for herself."

Naruto shrugged and her boss looked like she was going to fret over her lack of answers. She should reassure her boss but honesty was the best policy and well she didn’t know anything about her parents. Their names? Nope. Their family members? Impossible. Sure, there was the orphanage but it was a constant battle of survival for her when she lived there.

But there had been a previous caretaker if the rumours in the orphanage had been true about her not being there as a baby. _Considering the fact that the Matron used to complain about taking me in, because an old lady died._ The Matron ignored her but there had been a few occasions when the woman had ranted about her previous caretaker.

_“I wouldn’t have taken in the brat if **that** woman hadn’t died! The brat is nothing but bad luck!”_

Spiteful black eyes came into her mind and Naruto trembled. She felt her heart racing against her chest as a memory flashed before her eyes. _Monster_. The word echoed like a childish taunt as her stomach churned. It had been so many years since _that_ day and yet her whole body still quivered like a scared little child.

She blinked when a pair of hands reached out to her. The trembles stopped and Naruto twisted her head around to find a warm smile being bestowed on her. Her throat itched and her heart throbbed with a strange uncertainty. Why was her boss hugging her? What did she do to deserve this hug? She hadn’t done anything to deserve this hug.

“I don’t know who your parents are, Naruto but I’m certain that they are proud of you.” Her boss combed through her hair and flashed her a warm smile. “I’m pretty sure that they are looking down on you with a smile on their faces.”

_Do I even have parents?_ She wanted to ask the question but shoved down the words into her throat. This was definitely not the time for her to think about her life-long question. But it was a wonder if you asked her. People always talked about the possibility of her _possible_ parents abandoning her. That they despised her and that was the reason for the lack of parental guidance in her life.

“Why do you think like that?” Her throat tightened just a little bit.

Her Boss inspected her for the longest time and then smiled just a little bit. “Because they have an amazing child.”

Nothing came to her mind. Every thought inside of her seemed to have died down with those words and all she could do was stare at the smiling woman right behind her. Why did her boss think like that? She wasn’t an amazing person. No, there had to be a reason behind her boss words. But what if her boss was being sincere? Then she should thank her. Maybe her boss really didn’t want anything from her.

Maybe there was a chance that people could be nice to her without wanting anything from her.

_“You work for her.”_ A dark, feminine voice whispered. Naruto stiffened and clenched her hands into a fist. She directed her eyes onto the plates drowning in the sink’s water. “ _And you know how much **your** boss wants you to take a break. She knows that with those sweet words that you are going to work yourself to the ground because why should you deserve kindness?”_

She clenched her jaw. _“Maybe she is being sincere to me!”_

_“Sincere?”_ The voice scoffed. _“You thought Sakura was sincere and nice but was she nice to you when you came back without your best friend? Or did you forget how she called you useless for not bringing him back?”_

Hurt green eyes blazed into her mind’s eye and Naruto forced herself to put on a smile. Why did that stupid voice have to remind her of what her teammate did to her? Why was she so naïve to believe that her boss could be kind to her? There was no such thing called unconditional kindness. People always wanted something when they wanted to be kind.

_“ **You** didn’t bring him back.”_

_“ **You’re** useless!”_

_“Is Sasuke-kun going to join us, Naruto? You did ask him to come, didn’t you?”_

People always wanted something from her. If it wasn’t her friendship with Sasuke then it was something else. No one, outside of Hinata-chan, wanted to know her genuine self. People were manipulative and they always used the attention-starved part of her. They knew how much she craved for acknowledgment.

No one truly cared about her.

* * *

The roars of the ocean and the water clinging to her skin should bring a flutter of happiness inside of Naruto’s heart. But there was no flutter and no instant urge for her to smile at people. She could only watch with blank eyes as couples walked passed her with their hands clasped together. They shared secret looks and giggled like there was no tomorrow.

A tickle of envy washed over her and Naruto shook her head. She had other things to worry about and love was definitely not one of them. What mattered right now was this little white envelope in her hands. The same white envelope that almost mocked her about the childhood wishes and dreams that she once had.

_It won’t be a big deal if I don’t get in! I still have Shiketsu High School as my second choice._ She tightened her grip on the envelope and glanced down at the white envelope. Why did she have problems with opening a simple letter? This wasn’t like her. Fear wasn’t something associated with her as Hinata-chan would always like to tell her.

“Uzumaki-san!” A high-pitch voice cried.

Naruto jolted and jerked her head around to find the source of the cry. Her eyes widened at the sight of Midoriya jogging up to her with a very wide smile. He looked so joyful at seeing her but why? No, she knew the reason why. Unlike everyone in her class, she had either been indifferent or nice to him and that gave him the wrong idea that they were friends.

Yes, this was the reason for his rather odd joy of seeing her.

She should put on a smile and just waved at him but her hands were heavy. It was almost like someone put three large skyscrapers on her hands; not that she actually tried to see if she could lift that much weight in her hands. Besides, it was just too bothersome to lift the edges of her lips and beamed at the boy.

Two years ago, her lips would automatically lifted up into a smile but it seemed like the automatic reaction had gone away.

“Midoriya.” She tilted her head down in greeting as her green-haired classmate took a seat beside her. He didn’t sit too near but the distance between them wasn’t far enough for her not to hear his hand fiddling together with nerves. Naruto shook her head and cleared her throat. “What brings you here to the beach?”

Her classmate blinked and jerked his head like he hadn’t expected her to ask him questions. Well if she considered the fact that she never had a real liking when it came to small talk and how much she was starting to brood over the past, then it was rather understandable for her classmate to be shock.

“I-I decided to go out for a jog.” Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck and stared out at the ocean before sneaking a glance at her. He pulled his bottom lip backwards and forwards. A nervous tic and if she knew anything then it was the fact her classmate might have some questions for her. After a couple of seconds, her classmate continued on. “What about you? I thought you said that you have too much work that you can’t hang out.”

Naruto kept quiet. What should she tell him? That excuse had been true until her boss decided to snoop through her stuff. _Knowing you, you probably got in! So as a reward and treat, I’m going to give you some time off so that you can celebrate with friends._ That was what her boss had finally said after giving her back the envelope.

Her boss seemed to conveniently forget she didn’t have any friends.

_“Hey Uzumaki, you wanna come to the mall with us? We are going to see a movie!”_

She knew if she went with those girls that they might ask her about her non-existent Quirk. People cared more about whether you had a flashy Quirk, a normal _boring_ Quirk or if you didn’t have a Quirk. If a person didn’t have an awesome Quirk then they were treated unfairly because apparently Quirkless people didn’t deserve to have friends.

The moment they found out her abilities weren’t anything special, they would discard her like trash.

“I had been working until my Boss found out that today was the day we get our High School entrance results,” Naruto grimaced. Her classmate frowned and eyed her with some curiosity. “She apparently decided that my reward is to go out and have fun with the other kids.”

“You don’t seem happy about getting a break.” Her classmate observed. He knitted his eyebrows together and stared at her with befuddled eyes but if he wanted her to explain then he was going to wait for a very long time. There was simply no reason to explain her lack of desire to build bonds again or how work was the only thing that was allowing her to cope with everything.

_‘We are going to be the best of friends!’_

Best friends didn’t try and kill each other.

_‘Why hasn’t **he** visited her? **He** visited the other members of the Sasuke retrieval squad but why hasn’t he visited **her**?’_

The Medic-Nin’s questions floated in her ears and Naruto stared up at the sky. People always ended up hurting each other. They would spend time with each other, claimed to be friends but when you really needed them then they abandoned you. It was just better for everyone if she just didn’t make the effort of making friends.

_“Why can’t I go with you and Choji? Why can Ino join you guys but I can’t join you guys? She doesn’t even play with you!”_

No matter how much you smiled and complied with people’s wishes, it didn’t mean that you were going to get genuine friends.

“Uzumaki-san, why haven’t you open your Yuuei letter?” Naruto blinked and glanced at Midoriya. Her classmate stared at the envelope with a frown playing on his lips and looked at her like he was genuinely curious to know why she hadn’t opened the letter. Maybe he was curious to know if there was a possibility that she was going to be in the same department as Bakugou.

She offered him a half-hearted shrug. “I didn’t have the time.”

“You have time now.” Her classmate pointed out. He flinched when she settled a blank gaze at him and the whiskered teen shook her head at him. She gazed down at the unopened letter. There was plenty of time and there should be nothing holding her back. She used to have a dangerous job and it wasn’t like she wanted to be a hero.

But something held her back from opening the letter. It wasn’t fear because her heart hadn’t quivered when the letter came, but then again it had been so long since her heart did anything. Apprehension? That would make absolute sense. If she ripped open the letter and it confirmed her enrolment then it meant that there was going to be another change in her life.

_“Naru-chan, sometimes change can be a good thing.”_

Warm black eyes flashed before her eyes and Naruto looked away from Midoriya. She should focus on something else, something that did not make her remember those warm black eyes again. Nothing good came when dead people’s voices into her ears. Pain would erupt inside of her heart and chest alongside bittersweet memories.

No, it was better for her to find a new source that would allow her to regain control of her emotions again.

She nodded and then froze when her eyes caught sight of the Sasuke’s doppelgänger and his friends. The periwrinkle-haired girl and her fellow blond seemed intent on splashing in the water while the doppelganger gazed at her with flushed cheeks. Why did he look at her like that? Why was he blushing like a madman?

Something was definitely wrong with that guy.

“If you are scared about not getting in then I-I think you shouldn’t worry about it.” Midoriya stuttered. Naruto blinked and turned her head to meet the nervous eyes of her classmate. “I mean you have one of the best grades in school and you seem to be really confident that you would win the bet against Kacchan.”

Naruto sighed and sunk herself deeper into the sand. Everything coming out of her classmate’s mouth was logical and if she was truly trembling with nerves and fear, then his kind words would have brought a sense of comfort to her. But her heart didn’t pound with fear of not getting in. If becoming a hero was truly her dream then her heart would be on a roller-coaster of fear.

“Someone needed to break down his ego.” She could never tell him that she had been confident because of her experience.

Midoriya eyed her for a good couple of minutes and then glanced at the ocean. The bright blue waters glowed underneath the evening sunshine, almost looking like a scene from the movies, and the birds sang their evening song. But real life was nothing like those movies. It wasn’t beautiful and hopeful but cruel and never truly fair.

“I never did thank you for your support, did it?” Naruto blinked and tore her eyes away from the ocean to focus on Midoriya. He scratched his cheeks and smiled nervously at her. “You are the first person to believe that I could get in when everyone else didn’t believe in me. If it wasn’t for you, I might not have the courage to apply.”

She blinked and then stared at the ocean. “I think you would have still applied.”

“But not with that much confidence.” He insisted.

_Why do you want to give me more credit than I deserve? He would have still applied with the same amount of confidence._ The cold winds brushed against her arms and legs while green eyes shone with sincerity. Just because she said some kind words, did not mean she should take credit for the fact that he applied for Yuuei High.

Naruto took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Maybe her classmate was trying to give her a credit because he thought that would be enough for them to become friends. _But I don’t need to go through friendship again._ Her heart wouldn’t be able to endure another stab or another person just pretending to be nice to her.

But Midoriya looked like an innocent little rabbit and maybe the gratitude was truly sincere.

_“It could be a trick.”_ The voice whispered.

Naruto tightened her jaw. _“And what does he gain from tricking me? I’m not popular and I won’t help him if we both get into Yuuei High!”_

_“You will help him because you **always** help even when people don’t deserve it!”_

Her heart screamed and twisted as various memories came into her mind. She felt her head screamed and throbbed as if someone had drilled something in her head. This was all that stupid voice’s fault. It just had to keep reminding her of the fact that she was the idiot for having such blind faith in people.

“If you want something from me then you better be blunt with me, Midoriya.” She said flatly. “You don’t have to flatter me.”

Hurt flashed through Midoriya’s eyes and the boy frowned at her. She knew those words were harsh and maybe she should just flash him an apologetic smile but it was difficult. How could she ever be certain that if she allowed their friendship to blossom that he wouldn’t hurt her? Her friends stabbed her when she had done nothing wrong.

_"If you really were my friend then you would have tried harder to bring Sasuke-kun back."_

Sakura-chan didn't even care that Sasuke nearly killed her.

_"Our bond? It means nothing to me. Why should I care about someone like you? You are so irritating with that stupid smile on your face."_

That asshole made her believe that their childhood promise was real. He made her believe that those countless dinners alongside those presents and birthday cakes meant something to him. She shouldn’t have blind faith when it came to him. That kind boy in the sandbox died on the day his whole family had been taken away from him.

“I really don’t want anything from you, Uzumaki-san.” Midoriya’s voice was filled with hesitance and Naruto looked at him. Her friend scratched his neck and inspected her like he was trying to figure out why she would have those thoughts. Her classmate would never ever figured out the reason for her thoughts.

She regarded him for the longest time and then looked down at her envelope. It felt heavy, heavier than any rare letters that she had ever received in her life. Maybe it would be lighter if she just ripped open the letter. Yeah, it would be better if she just opened the letter and just fished out the acceptance letter from the envelope.

With a reluctant sigh, Naruto tore open the envelope and peaked into it. A metal mini-projector gleamed and sparkled against the sunrays, almost like a sparkle of hope. The whiskered teen cleared her throat and gingerly lifted the metal machine from the envelope. She held up the machine against the sunrays and stared at the golden logo sparkled like a star.

She put the machine on the sand and took a deep breath before pressing the button.

_“Listen up, Uzumaki Naruto!”_

Several heads turned towards her as Present Mic’s projection floated in the air and his loud, cheerful voice sliced through the air. All the chatter in the beach died down and everyone in the beach stared at her with wide eyes. They looked almost eager to see whether or not she would get in, which was so odd if you asked her. _They don’t know me._ But maybe they hoped that she didn’t get in.

If that was the case then they were going to be disappointed.

_“You have been accepted into Yuuei High’s Hero Department!”_ The Hero pointed his finger at her like he knew where she was going to be sitting and she guessed it made sense that he would know. She blinked when cheers erupted from behind her back. Why were all of these people cheering for her? Wouldn’t they have been pleased if she didn’t get in?

People were never pleased whenever something good happened to her.

_“You had the highest score in all of Yuuei High’s history!”_ The Hero threw her a thumb-up and flashed her a smile while more and more people stopped in their tracks. “ _Your written paper was great but your practical scores was something out of this world! You even went the extra smile and sent an injured person to Recovery Girl! Anyways, congratulation!”_

Applause exploded all around her and there was almost an excitement in the air. She could practically taste the excitement and that was so definitely strange if you asked her. Why was everyone so happy for her? And why were her regulars charging straight towards her with so much excitement? She hadn’t been exactly nice to them.

“We’re going to see each other more often!” Nejire cried, tackling her to the ground. Naruto grunted and forced herself to relax into a sand as her female customer beamed at her. Why was she tackling her to the ground? They weren’t friends. She served her and her friends whenever the three of them came into the café. “Oh, I’ll show you around the school!”

What the hell should she do when she was in this situation?

“Uzumaki-san, who is this?” Midoriya loomed over them. His green eyes flashed with absolute confusion as Nejire continued to shoot several questions at her. She wanted the girl to get off of her and she needed her stupid head to stop aching like there was no tomorrow. This was just too much interaction if you asked her.

She craned her head around, searching for a possible saviour from the crowds gathered around her. Indigo eyes met her own and Naruto knitted her eyebrows when the Sasuke’s doppelgänger blushed a bright shade of red. His eyes quivered with nerves and it wasn’t long before he looked away from her.

It was Togata who rescued her.

The older boy pried the teenager off of her and snuck a glance at her. “Nejire, I think you should let Uzumaki-san needs to breath.”

“But I still have so many questions!”

Her lungs let out a sigh of relief and Naruto pushed herself up from the sand. She shifted her whole body around until her legs crossed together and her spine screamed with delight from the sudden crack. She glanced at Togato and blinked when the male offered her a warm, almost sunny smile.

His smile didn’t even waver when she made no attempt to smile at him.

Midoriya cleared his throat. “Uzumaki-san, do you know these people?”

“We always go to Uzumaki’s workplace for deserts!” Nejire snuck a glance at Tamaki and the male looked away from the teen. Naruto couldn’t help but noticed the fact that the male was now blushing an even intense shade of red. “And we are going to take good care of Uzumaki-chan! You know you can ask us any questions…”

She tuned the chatterbox out and stared at the crowds surrounding them. All of them had smiles playing on their faces as if they were genuinely pleased for what happened to her. Dimly, Naruto felt her cheeks being stretched out as someone asked something about her whisker marks and something about Tamaki.

Her focus should go back to them but Naruto could only think of one thing:

_Even if people didn’t want anything from me, I can never trust the kind words and smiles of people anymore._

It would be a mockery to the naïve little girl that got betrayed by the boy she saw as her brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do click on the kudos if you liked it and do tell me of your thoughts about the chapter


	5. Chapter 5

_That is her, isn’t it?_

Itsuka stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of a blond-haired girl dragging her feet through the gates of Yuuei High. That hair color was the same shade as that girl who saved her life. Throughout her time in this Earth, she had never seen a shade of blond that shone as brightly as the sun until that girl from the exams.

The wind whistled in the background and dimly, she could hear their seniors chatting without a care in the world. Itsuka continued to walk, picking up her pace as her savior continued to take her sweet time through the doors. This might be her only chance to talk to the girl. They might be in the same school but they could be in different classes.

She had to get her attention.

“You’re that cool girl who took me to the nurse, aren’t you?” Itsuka winced and stumbled, only to blink when a hand caught her. She looked up to meet stoic blue eyes and she felt her cheeks burning up when her savior steadied her and straightened her spine.

_Her eyes are really blue._ She should look away from those eyes but there was something about her eyes that drew her attention. Maybe it was because those blue eyes reminded her of a calm ocean or it might be because there was absolutely no emotion in those eyes. The second thing that drew her attention was her savior’s smile.

Even though the teenager didn’t have any emotions flashing through her eyes, the whiskered teen’s smile screamed of friendliness and that was enough for her stomach to flutter with hope.

“You’re the girl who had her leg stuck on the rubble.” Her savior stated.

Itsuka’s cheeks flushed an even darker shade of red and she bobbed her head before inspecting the girl in front of her. Most of the facial features that the girl had screamed delicate and dainty with the only exception being her eyes. No, those blue eyes were large, almost reminded her of a doe and had a similar shape to one of her juniors.

Now that she thought about it, her savior resembled that irritating, arrogant junior of hers.

She cleared her throat. “I just want to thank you for rescuing me the way you did, if it wasn’t for you then my problem with my leg could have been worst.”

The blond-haired girl blinked and blinked but didn’t say a word. Those stoic eyes lit up slightly with surprise as if she hadn’t expected her to give a word of gratitude but why wouldn’t she say thank you? Not once during that time she had been stuck, did someone took the time to lift up that rubble or even offered to take her to the infirmary.

“Why are you thanking me?” The girl asked curtly. “Anyone would have done what I did.”

Itsuka shook her head. “ _Maybe_ but you were the one that made the clones and took me to the infirmary! Recovery Girl said if it wasn’t for you then I would have been in bigger trouble!”

Several eyes flickered towards them but all she could do was stare at the blond-haired girl right in front of her. Her _possible_ classmate just stared at her with blank eyes and that smile on her face faded. Itsuka fiddled her hands together. Did she say the wrong thing? Why wasn’t the girl reacting to her words? Maybe it would have been better for her to keep her mouth shut.

“I just did what anyone should have done in that situation.” The girl repeated, clicking her feet together. “A hero shouldn’t ignore a person in distress.”

The orange-haired girl flinched and stared down at her hands. If it had been the blonde in that situation then she wouldn’t have saved the girl, even if she could carry the large rubble off of her. Time had been in the essence during the exam and every point count, which was why she wouldn’t have wasted any time to help someone.

_But she didn’t care about the time and getting points._ Itsuka trailed behind her savior and licked her dried lips. Why didn’t her savior care about it? Why did her savior choose to become a hero? She was going to be a hero in order to support her family and to ensure that their dojo could still thrive despite the fact that her junior’s dojo was taking over their family business.

  
She shook her head and let out a sigh of relief when she caught up beside the blond-haired girl.

“I didn’t get your name!” The blonde flickered her eyes to her and tilted her head like she didn’t understand why she wanted to know her. Wait, it might be because she hadn’t introduce herself and that was rude. Her parents had taught her better than this after all. “My name is Kendou Itsuka but you can call me Itsuka-chan!”

She held out her hand and waited for the girl to grab her hand but the whiskered teen eyed her hand like it was the strangest thing in the world. Should she retract her hand? Or should she just hold out until the blonde shook her head? What should she do? Because their seniors kept flickering their eyes at them like they were weirdos.

“Uzumaki Naruto.” She grabbed her hand and offered a firm handshake.

Itsuka blinked. “Uzumaki? Are you related to any chance Uzumaki Akane?”

The blonde frowned and furrowed her eyebrows together. She looked almost befuddled at the fact that someone could have the same last name as her and the orange-haired girl shuffled back and forth in her spot. Maybe it had been a mistake to ask, but the two girls had the same last name and they looked similar to each other.

The only difference was that Naruto had golden hair while Akane had fiery red hair.

“I don’t think I’m related to her.” Naruto shook her head and offered her a large smile. “Maybe Uzumaki is a common name.”

_But almost every Uzumaki I have met, seemed to know each other._ She wanted to say those words to the whiskered teen but something stopped her in her tracks. Maybe it was because those blue eyes looked ready to finish their conversation and that was the last thing she wanted. This was the first day of High School and she wanted a friend.

She would have tried to continue on the conversation if it wasn’t for the fact that a periwrinkle-haired girl tackled Naruto.

Itsuka slacked her jaw and watched with wide eyes as Naruto crashed to the ground with a smiling, perky blue-haired girl straddling her. What was happening? Did her savior and future friend already know people from this school? It looked like it especially with the way Naruto stiffened and looked almost resigned to what just happened.

“Are you excited for your first day of school? Oh, is she your friend? Which class are you in?” The periwrinkle-haired girl pulled and tugged on Naruto’s cheeks and her words sliced through the air. Students stopped in their tracks and a couple of students shot looks of pity to the blond-haired girl sprawled on the rocky ground.

The blonde groaned. “Hadou-senpai, slow down. I’m in Class 1A.”

“You finally answered me!” Hadou cried, clapping her hands together. She jumped off of the teen and yanked the blond-haired girl from the ground before pulling her in for what could only be a tight hug if that squeezed expression on Naruto’s face told her anything. “I can’t wait to tell Togata and Tamaki that you finally talked to me! Ooh, do you want me to take you to your class?”

Naruto heaved. “Can you let go of me so I can answer?”

“Sorry Uzumaki-chan!” Hadou cried, releasing the blonde from her hold. The whiskered teen clutched her chest and waved her hand before glancing at her. Confusion shone through her eyes like she didn’t know why she was there and Itsuka paused. What should she do? Did she have to explain herself? But there should be no point for her to explain stuff to her.

The whiskered teen shook her head. “Can you show me and Kendo to our class? The campus looks way too big for us to risk getting lost. ”

“Kendou?” Hadou blinked and Naruto pointed at Itsuka. The blue-haired girl stared at the orange-haired teen for a good couple of seconds before broadening her smile until it seemed like her face was going to split into half. “Are you Uzumaki-chan’s friend? How did you two meet? Wait, I should introduce myself first: my name is Hadou Nejire and I’m going to be your senpai!”

Until they reached their respective classroom, Kendou had to answer the firing bullets that was Hadou’s question and she wondered if Naruto introduced them so that she didn’t have to deal with the countless questions.

If it was then it was completely cunning of the teenager.

* * *

_“It is nice that we are in the same class, isn’t it Todoroki-san?”_

Shouto nodded and kept his gaze focused on their chatting classmates as Yaoyorozu glanced at their classmates with a slight nervous smile on her lips. It was the first day of school but with the laughter and chatter bouncing off the walls. Their smiles lit across the room and everyone acted like they were old friends.

It was…unnerving if you asked him.

Most of the faces seemed unfamiliar to him except Yaoyorozu. His black-haired classmate was someone he regularly saw whenever Endeavor forced him to attend one of her family’s functions. But now instead of seeing her in some dark red dress and her being calm and poised, she was in a school uniform and looked visibly nerved at the idea of interacting with their future classmates.

He looked away from the crowded table in front of him when the door slid open. A bright blond-haired girl with bright blue eyes walked through the doors with a tight smile playing on her lips. She stopped in her tracks and scanned the room, blue eyes glinting with a slight analytical gleam in her eyes.

Her eyes lit up with slight irritation when her eyes landed on the scowling blond-haired boy, who was currently being scolded by one of their classmates.

Shouto stiffened just a little bit when the girl focused her gaze on him. _Empty._ That was the first thing that stood out about those bright blue eyes while the second thing which stood out to him was her smile. It was forced like someone pulled on her lips and ordered her to smile like an idiot. It felt familiar too when he thought about it.

_‘I’m fine, Shouto-kun.’_

His mother’s smile flashed before his eyes and Shouto thinned his lips. Right. That could be the reason why the girl’s smile felt familiar to him because just like his mother, his female classmate was putting on a show to the world. People did that to hide their pain and suffering or well that was why his mother did it.

“Uzumaki-san!” Shouto blinked when the nervous green-haired boy straightened his spine and charged straight towards the whiskered teen. A bright smile broke across his face while Uzumaki crocked her head to the side. “It is a miracle that we are in the same class, isn’t it?”

“Or some sick twisted joke if we’re back to being Explosive Head’s classmates again.” The girl said dryly. Everyone blinked and Shouto tilted his head when the scowling blond-haired boy stopped scowling and dropped his feet from the ground. Vermillion eyes flared up with irritation but the blond-haired girl remained unfazed.

Explosive Head growled. “It isn’t like I wanted to be classmates with you and Deku too, Whiskers!”

“Why not? Izuku is your only chance of getting friends while I’m the only one that can reigned your big ego in.” Uzumaki retorted with a wide smile playing on her lips. The male growled but did not dare to refute the comment about his ego. Everyone else just exchanged glances as the whiskered teen strolled towards the other empty seat beside him.

She turned her whole body away from them and slid her backpack onto the chair while everyone else continued to stare at her with wide eyes. They looked almost at loss as if they hadn’t expected the blonde to make that remark, and if Shouto considered her appearance then he couldn’t blame them. The girl looked like the stereotypical bubbly blond-haired type found in comics but acted anything but bubbly.

It was odd but also interesting at the same time.

The chairs in front of him rustled and Shouto almost scratched his head when one of their classmates charged right towards the blonde. A regretful look played on the male’s face while Uzumaki ruffled through her bag as if she was searching for something important. Nothing seemed to make the girl fazed because despite the stares, the blonde continued to search through her bag.

She only looked up when the dark blue-haired boy cleared his throat.

“Uzumaki-san, I owe you an apology for my disrespectful behavior during the Entrance Exam.” The male declared. Whispers broke out when the male bowed his head, forehead smacking the wooden table that sat right in front of Uzumaki. “Please accept my apology.”

Uzumaki stared at the glasses-wearing male for the longest time with blank eyes. Her lips twitched but was she going to smile? Or was she going to scowl at the male? It was difficult to tell when the blond-haired girl seemed intent on hiding her emotions from the world around them. Shouto almost frowned when the blonde smiled widely at the glasses-wearing smile.

_She always chooses to give a fake smile._

Shouto thinned his lips and flickered his eyes to his other classmates. Most of them hurdled together, almost forming a wall between themselves and the two students beside him. Almost all of them looked at them with weary smiles with the only exception being the short purple-haired boy. That particular classmate seemed content with ogling the girl like she was a tasty bowl of soba.

His stomach churned with disgust and he shook his head.

“If you’ve to apologize for being a dick then you should apologize to Midoriya,” Uzumaki stated. The green-haired boy stiffened and looked ready to crawl into his desk when everyone turned their gaze at the male. “You basically implied that he was some kind of manslut which is something an asshole would say, not someone from a Hero Course. Me? Your words didn’t affect me in any way.”

The male flinched. “I’ll admit that it was rude of me to say those things about Midoriya.”

“Apologize to Midoriya and not me! You also need to learn how to control your mouth when someone irritates you,” she declared with a hardened tone. The teen flinched once again and pushed his glasses up before making his way towards Midoriya. The whiskered teen stared for just a couple of seconds before turning her head away from them. “He might have the same habit as Bug Boy but even Buy Boy would have known better than to say those shitty things.”

The last words were soft but it was still loud enough for his ears to pick it up. He stared at the girl before glancing at Yaoyorozu. The black-haired girl kept gazing at the whiskered teen like she didn’t know whether to be appalled by her bad language or to marvel over the bluntness of the girl’s words. Marvel would be the best course of action.

It took courage to say those things to a stranger.

Shouto tore his gaze away from the grumpy blond-haired girl when the door banged open. Only the empty corridor greeted his eyes but there had to be someone who opened the door. Was their teacher invisible like the female sitting a couple of seats across him? No, their teacher would be wearing clothes wouldn’t they?

So where was the teacher?

He glanced at Uzumaki and Yaoyorozu. Both girls had their eyes fixed on the floor and both of them had frowns playing on their lips as if the sight before them bothered them in some way or form. He followed their gaze and blinked at the sight of a man lying inside of a sleeping bag. Why was their teacher inside a sleeping bag?

Black eyes inspected him with a complete lack of emotions. It was like the man was analyzing everything about him from the way he dressed to even the way he sat on his table, but Shouto did not move his eyes away from the male. He just sat there and waited with a baited breath for the man to either look away from him or for him to get out of the sleeping bag.

After a couple of seconds, the man finally unzipped the sleeping bag. Their teacher peeled the bag away from his body and stood up from his spot. If he had to guess the man’s age then he would put him in his early thirties but Shouto wasn’t completely certain. When it came to guessing people’s ages, he had always been wrong.

The chatter in the classroom died down and all of the students straighten their backs as the man strolled towards the podium. Their eyes were filled with eagerness and the air seemed to thicken as black eyes scanned the room again. There was still no friendly smile, which was usually associated with the first day of school. Nothing about his black eyes screamed warmth.

It was nothing but pure cold logic.

“It took exactly ten seconds for all of you to settle down and stop your babbling.” Their teacher said flatly. He didn’t look one bit pleased as he placed his hands on either sides of the podium. “I’m Aizawa Shouta and I’ll be your homeroom teacher. Now, I want all of you to change into your gym uniforms and meet me on the field.”

Shouto frowned.

What the hell was their homeroom teacher planning to do?

* * *

_Do they always have to make everything big?_

Naruto grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck as she scanned the whole sports field. It was almost as large as one of the training fields in Konoha except where the training field was surrounded by trees, this field had the school building in the background. If the grass back home was real and had the scent of grass then the field reeked of artificial scent.

She glanced at her classmates; all of them were gathered together like a herd and were whispering among themselves. _What is happening?_ That was the question floating around in the air as the students darted their eyes to Aizawa. Their homeroom teacher strolled in a lazy pace that almost reminded her of Kakashi, but something told her that this man did not have the same aloofness her genin instructor had.

The man stopped in the middle of the field and twisted his whole body around until his torso faced them. His black eyes revealed nothing and he thinned his lips before he finally said. “I brought all of you here so that you can do the Quirk Assessment Test.”

The declaration hovered over them but no one said a word. There wasn’t even a gasp or a cry of protest but it would be a matter of time before they finally processed what had been said. Naruto crocked her head to the side and slid her hands into her pockets. Just a few more seconds and her classmates would make the same reaction that her teammates and her made when Kakashi-sensei told them about the second Genin Exam.

_Five…_

_Four…_

_Three…_

_Two…_

_“Quirk Assessment Test!”_

The uniform screams sliced through the air. It echoed and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the people living down the hill could hear the student’s betrayed cries. But who could blame them? They worked so hard, only to find out that they had another exam to do. Naruto wrinkled her nose and stared down at the lush, artificial green grass. But life could be unfair and it seemed like teachers just enjoyed hiding things from their students.

She shook her head and inspected Aizawa. Their homeroom teacher didn’t flinch at the loud screams nor did he look one bit bothered when the other students shot scowls and looks of betrayal at him. It was almost like there was nothing that could faze the man or break him from the constant stoic look.

He shook his head and swept his eyes across the students, only to jolt when she offered him a bright, confident smile. Her teacher regarded her as if he was trying to figure out why she was confident. But why wouldn’t she be confident? Her chakra control might be iffy but she had decent enough moves when compared to the other members of her class.

“What about the opening ceremony? And orientation?” The brown-haired girl exchanged concern glances with Midoriya.

Aizawa thinned his lips and clicked his feet together, turning his whole body towards the empty field. “If you want to be a Hero then you don’t have time for such leisurely events.”

Her fellow students frowned and glanced at each other. From right in front of her, Naruto could see three students wiggling around as their sweat dripped down onto the artificial grass. A quick glance over her back revealed a couple of pale-faced students who looked like they were going to faint in the next couple of seconds. Why wouldn’t they?

They believed this was their first steps into becoming a hero but if Aizawa shared the same, sadistic pleasure as Kakashi-sensei then it was going to get worse from here on out.

“Yuuei’s selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are,” Aizawa finally said after a couple of minutes. His tone still revealed nothing and his eyes held no signs of amusement or any real emotions that could be identified. It was like their homeroom teacher was made of a damn rock. “That also goes for how the teachers can run their classes.”

_You know you are making the students more terrified for what you are planning to do, don’t you?_ She poked her tongue against her cheek and flickered her eyes to the brown-haired girl standing beside Midoriya. The girl trembled like a scared little child while a couple of the boys tugged on their collars as if they felt hot wind and not cold, crispy morning air.

Their homeroom teacher cleared his throat and pulled out his cellphone from his pockets. He held the phone up in the air, revealing a range of tests. But it wasn’t some strange test if you asked her. It was all the tests that they had done in Middle School. The 50-meter dash, grip strength, standing long jump, repeated side steps, ball throw, distance run, seated-toe touch and sit ups. Those were all the test shown on the screen.

“All of you have done these tests in Middle School, haven’t you?” They nodded and Aizawa eyed them. “Then all of you know that these were all physical fitness tests where the use of your Quirk is forbidden.”

Naruto scratched her neck and flickered her eyes to Midoriya. He looked almost nervous but that was understandable. Out of everyone in their new class, he was the only one with no special abilities and this could be his worst nightmare. _But he is going to do fine, Midoriya is smart._ If it had been anyone else then it would be a concern but if he passed the exam then her classmate could do this without a problem.

“Uzumaki!”

She jolted and opened her palm when a slow-moving ball hurled towards her. Her palm burned just a little bit and the whiskered teen crocked her head to the side when Aizawa-sensei inspected her for the longest time. A small frown played on his lips but the man shook his head as if dismissing any thought that he had.

“Why did you throw the ball at me?” She tossed the ball up and down before tilting her head at their homeroom teacher.

The man eyed her. “You finished the top of the practical exam, didn’t you?”

“Well Present Mic mentioned something about having the highest score so yup.” She rubbed the back of her neck and tried her hardest not to squirm when some of the boys slacked their jaws at her. Why did they look like it should be impossible for her to get that score? Just because she was born a girl, did not mean she couldn’t possess any talent or strength.

Bakugou shot her an irritated glare before throwing a heated glare at the boys gawking at her. The boys squeaked and then flinched while Naruto raised an eyebrow at her classmate.

“They are a bunch of idiots if they think it is surprising that you got the highest score.” He barked.

She eyed him and plastered on a smile. “It sounds like you are being supportive about the fact that I beat you.”

“It is a fluke,” Bakugou growled with flushed cheeks. The whiskered teen raised an eyebrow and her blond-haired classmate threw her a scowl. “And I’m not being supportive, Whiskers! Not now and definitely not in the future.”

Aizawa cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes at them, his arms folded against his chest. No amusement shone through his eyes nor did he offer them a scowl, the only thing he did do was shot them a reprimanded look. The two blonds exchanged glances before bowing their heads down. It was definitely rude for her to continue on the conversation.

“Now that the both of you have finished your conversation, we will go back to the topic at hand: the fitness test.” Aizawa leaned back on his foot and regarded her with thoughtful eyes. “Uzumaki, what was your best result for the softball throw?”

She hummed and smiled even wider at her teacher. “200 meters.”

No one said a thing and the only sound that could be heard were the birds singing and the grasshoppers chirps. After a few seconds, almost all of the students blinked and jerked their heads at her as if they were trying to process how she could throw a softball that far. She straightened her spine and dropped the smile from her face.

Her cheeks screamed with relief when she did it.

“Y-You are joking right?” A blond-haired boy cried.

Naruto tilted her head. “Why the hell would I joke about something like that? I can really throw that far.”

“Without your Quirk?” The purple-haired pipsqueak cried. He flung his arms up in the air and looked at her like he wanted to rip his head out at the idea that she could throw that far. “No one can throw that far! It is physically impossible for someone to throw that far without a Quirk!”

More and more whispers broke out from the crowds as several eyes looked at her with disbelief. She tightened her jaw and balled her hands into a fist, fingernails digging into the palm of her hand but she wasn’t going to hit anyone. _I’m not an animal. Violence isn’t the answer. Hurting anyone would bring me more trouble than it is worth._ Maybe if she repeated it enough then maybe she could control herself.

A sharp whistle broke through the loud whispers and all of the students turned to Aizawa. The black-haired man cleared his throat and let out a tired sigh. “We don’t have all day but if all of you don’t believe Uzumaki then she should just demonstrate it to everyone. Will that make everyone feel better?”

Everyone bobbed their heads and Aizawa pointed to the middle of the field, where she could see the pitching mound. Naruto sighed and proceeded to drag her feet towards the box. She felt the cold wind caressing her skin until goosebumps rose up from her skin. She kept her head held up high when some of the students shot her curious looks.

She stopped right on top of the pitching mound.

_Why must I prove myself to them?_ She shook her head and pulled her arm back. Blood pumped right up her arms as adrenaline and irritation coursed through her blood. This was stupid. Why would she even lie about this? People couldn’t believe anything she said so why the fuck did she even bother saying that she could throw that far?

She slid her feet back and steadied herself. For a brief moment, _cold_ black eyes flashed before her eyes and her blood boiled up with a growing rage that couldn’t be stifled with a couple of sharp breaths. She tightened her jaw and launched her arm forward. Wind smacked against her cheeks, whistling as it flew like a speeding bullet.

“Do you believe me now.”

Naruto cleared her throat and turned her whole body around to her classmates. They goggled but didn’t say anything to her; it was as if they were completely stunned at the strength that she threw the ball. They did nothing too, not even offering her an apologetic nod for calling her a liar when it came to her skill. Then again why would anyone apologize? Not many people believed she deserved an apology.

Their teacher cleared his throat and looked down at his phone. “You must have been downplaying your skill because that was 300 meters.”

_Oops._

That was definitely not the plan.

“I must have improved from the last time.” She cleared her throat and offered a tight smile. “Do I have to bring back the ball so that I can do it with my Quirk?”

Their teacher shook his head and pulled out another ball from his pocket. “You’re lucky that I had a few students break these balls or else you would be the one bringing back that doll. Now show us what you can do with your Quirk.”

He tossed the second softball at her and Naruto caught it without blinking an eyelash. She fingered the ball and gazed at the vast field in front of her with thinned lips. Closing her eyes, she channeled her chakra to the palm of her hand and then slid her feet backwards. The sand hissed and dug against her sneakers while Naruto reeled her arm back.

_How far can she throw with her Quirk?_

That question wasn’t said out loud but it might as well as have been with the way her classmates curious eyes stabbed her back.

Another deep inhale and Naruto furrowed her eyebrows. Her muscles throbbed and pulsed as she reeled her arm even further back before she launched the ball again. Once again, the wind howled and stretched her cheeks back as the ball soared over the trees. From behind her, the whispers grew louder as the ball disappeared from their line of sight.

Aizawa raised his phone up in the air and showed the value for everyone to see:

Three kilometers.

Well it seemed like she should go back to practicing chakra control because that was still too much chakra.

* * *

_Uzumaki Naruto._

Aizawa stared at the file and thinned his lips before darting his eyes to the girl, who had been flying through the tests like something out of the movie. There hasn’t been a test that the girl hadn’t come either first or second, which was rather impressive with how vague and limited her Quirk could be. But that wasn’t his concern.

It was the constant smile on her lips and the way the girl seemed to grow irritated whenever someone expressed their shock at her score.

He tapped his finger against the file and watched with blank eyes when the girl blasted off from the race track, leaving Todoroki behind to eat her dust. Some of the students slacked their jaws, looking almost slightly awed by the girl’s capabilities while a few looked almost discouraged about the girl’s skill.

_I would have flat-out complain if that was me._ He darted his eyes to Todoroki. The male had a determined look on his face, not seeming to care one bit that his competitor was faster than a speeding bullet. But then again he was Endeavor’s kid and that man was well-known for trying to surpass All Might despite the huge gap in their skill.

It was fair to presume his son inherited that same, intense desire.

_But if that boy wants to be a hero then Uzumaki seems to have a different opinion._ Aizawa inspected the smiling blond-haired girl, eyes lingering on those mistrustful eyes. That child didn’t have the same drive or rather he would say that the child didn’t seem like she wanted to open herself up to anyone. Those blue eyes weren’t the eyes of someone who wanted to be a hero.

It was the eyes of someone who had been through some very rough shit.

_But what the hell happened to this child?_ He tapped his finger against the file and looked at the personal details. There was nothing about her parents, not even a name. Her guardian contact details were conveniently left blank despite the fact that Jiraiya was the name written on the file. Her Middle School records were shown alongside her workplace but anything before the age of thirteen was gone.

There was a reason for the lack of details and those details had to be connected to why a 15-year-old girl had almost no information on her file. Those details might be the reason Uzumaki kept looking around like she expected someone to hurt her. Aizawa grimaced and tightened his grip on the clip folder.

But even if he was certain, he couldn’t interfere with anything until the test was over. He couldn’t help the girl until he got some shred of an idea on what problems he was going to be enduring when it came to Uzumaki. _We have a student, who might be able to give All Might a run for his money but it will be pointless if she doesn’t get help._ They couldn’t fail a child, especially when the child was filled with so much potential.

If it hadn’t been for her mental state then the girl would have been deemed a failure because he needed his students to try and look like they were going to put their life on the line for this job.

_“A hero should be willing to sacrifice their life and be willing to do whatever it takes to destroy that villain, even if they are scared for their life.”_

All Might had been pleased and actually seemed to agree with the girl’s philosophy when Nedzu played it on the screen for them. But his stomach churned and dread crept up in his stomach. Because despite the logic in her words, it sounded like the girl had no regard when it came to her own life. Like she would throw her life away if she thought it was the best option.

That was wrong because their life was something precious and valuable, not something they should take for granted.

_It is like the child had been told that her own life doesn’t matter._ His stomach rolled around and he glanced down at the file again. If only there was just some clue about her family background, something that could just tell him about the root cause of that dangerous belief. He glanced down at the report again and paused when his eyes focused on the description of the girl’s Quirk.

It was just as vague as All Might’s Quirk but the girl shared the same last name as Uzushiokage and her Quirk seemed familiar to the hero.

_But a person can share the same last name and last time I check, Uzushiokage would have probably bragged about a family member coming here._ The young man adored his parents and siblings alongside his countless cousins, so there was no way that the male would have kept the girl a secret. No, it was better if he looked elsewhere to get clues on his student.

_“4 seconds!”_

He jerked his head and inspected the blond-haired girl standing on the finish line. _4 seconds_? On long distance? That was amazing. Fast too when he thought about it. Iida couldn’t even reach that score despite the fact his Quirk was designed for this race. But that wasn’t the most amazing thing if you asked him.

It was the fact Uzumaki didn’t look like she broke a sweat during this whole process. There was no panting and those legs were still steady as a rock. It was like this track was nothing but a joke for her. _If Nedzu sees this then he is going to be keeping an eye on her for the next few years._ His lips tugged into a frown as he darted his eyes around the students.

Not a single one of them had the same energetic expression as the smiling girl. All of them looked ready to pass out from the rigorous test, which was natural because every single one of them should have done seven tests by now.

Aizawa looked back down at the file and bobbed his head.

He definitely needed to get more information because nothing made sense about the girl.


	6. Chapter 6

_Her landlord should have some information about Uzumaki._

Aizawa tapped his feet against the concrete ground as he waited for his student’s landlord to open the door. It would have been better for him to go to his student’s boss but the girl did not need to be alerted of the fact he was snooping into her personal life. Besides, there was very little chance that her boss would have the contact details of her guardian.

The door swung opened. A middle-aged man, who reached up to his hips, stood in front of him with a frown playing on his lips. The male furrowed his eyebrows and inspected him from head to toe. It wasn’t long before a look of disgust appeared on the male’s face. The older male scowled and folded his arms against his chest. “What?”

“Hello, my name is Eraserhead.” He kept his tone calm and pulled out his hero license from his pocket. He dangled it in front of the middle-aged man and the look of disgust was immediately erased from the man’s expression. Those black eyes widened and the male leaned forward, his eyes scanning the area. “And I have some questions to ask about your two tenants: Uzumaki Naruto and—”

“—I have one tenant,” the middle-aged man replied. “Jiraiya doesn’t live with that child.”

Aizawa frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Why? He is her guardian, isn’t he?”

“He is,” the man confirmed. The landlord flickered his eyes around the empty hallway before landing his eyes back at him. The frown on his face deepened and the middle-aged man let out a sigh. “But he hasn’t lived with that child since he rented her apartment from me. I think he stayed for two weeks before leaving her alone in that apartment.”

The black-haired hero frowned. “And you haven’t contacted anyone about this? That child shouldn’t be alone in the apartment.”

“Can you really call Uzumaki a child?” He blinked and raised an eyebrow at the landlord. The man took a deep breath and stepped out of his apartment, closing the door behind him. The middle-aged man leaned back against the door. “From the few times I have gone into her apartment, it showed no signs of a child taking care of an apartment. Even her outlook on life is more mature than my own kids.”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“She works to pay off the rent and bills,” The middle-aged man observed. “Even though I tell her that I don’t care if she is a little behind in her rent, then the child would tell me that it wasn’t fair for my other tenants. That she would just give me more money from the paycheck that her boss had given her.”

“But if she has a guardian then why must she be the one to pay the rent?”

The question hovered between them and Aizawa inspected the middle-aged man with thinned lips. Nothing about the whole arrangement made any sense to him. Why would a guardian abandon a child for nearly three years? How could this man be unaffected by what was happening? Something about the whole thing made no sense if you asked him.

“I’m not exploiting her if that is what you are worried about,” the landlord grumbled. Aizawa thinned his lips and folded his arms against his chest. The middle-aged man flung his arms up in the air and trembled just a little bit. “Seriously, I don’t want to get into trouble with the law and I told her guardian before he left that if people knew I allowed a 13-year-old to pay rent then it will look bad on my business.”

He narrowed his eyes at him. “What did her Guardian do when you told him that?”

“Told me that he will pay for it but he didn’t want me to alert Uzumaki about the arrangement.” Aizawa furrowed his eyebrows while the middle-aged man looked down at the floor. “So the money that Uzumaki gives me is going to some special account that Jiraiya had made in the event that he dies before she graduates High School.”

Aizawa frowned. “Does Jiraiya have a dangerous job?”

“He is just an author.” The landlord flushed red and a little bit of blood dripped down from his nose. “You know the mysterious author of the Icha-Icha Series? The one that is distributed by _that_ publishing house that seem to publish mostly those magical shinobi books? Well he wrote those books.”

He blinked and blinked before slowly bobbing his head. The Icha-Icha series wasn’t his cup of tea but Hizashi and Nemuri seemed to enjoy reading the contents of those _disgusting_ books. However, the other series made from the Kusarihasa publishing house was of an interest to him. They explored topics that he had never seen some of the shinobi stories and movies explored.

_But I can’t believe that Uzumaki is the ward of such a perverted man._ He poked his tongue against his cheek and regarded the man in front of him. There was still a nervous look on the man. He still quivered but there was now some confidence flowing into his eyes as if there was something giving him the confidence again.

“Do you have Jiraiya’s contact details?” The man blinked and shook his head. “Why not?”

The landlord rubbed the back of his neck and knitted his eyebrows. He looked almost conflicted as if he wasn’t certain whether to tell him the reason or not. It shouldn’t be a conflict. Unlike Uzumaki’s guardian, he was considered a member of authority and should have the right to know the lack of details about the man.

“He contacts me, not the other way around and it is always a burner phone,” The middle-aged man replied. He shuffled back and forth in his spot as the sound of car honks sliced through the air. The man shook his head. “He is a paranoid guy, which is kinda weird when you think about the fact that he is an author. Besides, _you_ don’t contact him! He contacts you.”

Aizawa rubbed the sides of his head. He felt the sides of his head throbbing and screaming as brown eyes looked at him with sincerity. An author that uses a burner phone? And a paranoid one at that? It didn’t make sense but it made sense at the same time. Almost all of the authors from that publishing house did not have their location revealed at the about the Author page. Nothing about their families and pets too when he thought about it.

“Okay but did he or Uzumaki talk about her parents?” They had to be open about that, wouldn’t they?

The middle-aged man frowned and looked at the door beside him, which must have been Uzumaki’s apartment. Sadness colored his eyes and whatever dread he had inside of him grew at that look. Nothing good came when a landlord had that kind of expression. What kind of past was he going to be dealing with?

“Uzumaki doesn’t have any memories of them and she doesn’t like talking about them.” The landlord shook his head and looked back at him with a tiny frown. “But Jiraiya told me that her parents died when she was just a little baby, protecting her from some villain attack. The poor kid didn’t even get to have any memories of them.”

Aizawa nodded and looked over his shoulders. Despite the fact that they were on the fifth floor, he could see little children waving their good-byes to their parents as they prepared for the day ahead. He sighed and looked back at the landlord. He might have answered everything but there were still some questions that still needed to be answered.

“Does Uzumaki hang around anyone?” He asked. The landlord blinked and arched an eyebrow, looking almost befuddled at the idea. “Does Uzumaki throw any parties or bring any men in here? Or girls? The girl is still a teenager and it isn’t a stretch to believe with a lack of guardian that she woud—”

“—Involve herself with risky behaviour?” The landlord finished.

Aizawa nodded. The fact her guardian wasn’t here to guide her would mean that the child could be prone to self-destructive behaviour and that little comment about sacrificing her life had set alarms in his head. There had to be more signs of the girl partaking behaviour that could cause her self-harm. If that was the case then there was a need for him to intervene in her life.

The middle-aged man sighed. “Uzumaki spends most, if not all of her time working her ass off in that café. When she does come back to her apartment, she just locks the door and that is it. The few times that I did check up on her, I saw no signs or hints that she is drinking alcohol. Once I asked her if she got a boyfriend, that child looked at me like I was insane and told me that she had no time for such bullshit.”

“Bullshit?” He raised an eyebrow.

The landlord held his arms up in the air. “She is the one that said it, not me! I only asked the question because she works in that café and I know from one of my nieces that her workplace had gotten a huge influx of teenage boys coming in because of her. Apparently, she has a _certain_ way of getting the male customers to come back.”

“A way?” He repeated.

The man nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, looking almost slightly uncomfortable. Aizawa thinned his lips and folded his arms against his chest. What did his female student do to get male customers to come to her workplace? There were so many ways that a young female could bring in customers and for the sake of his sanity, it better not be _that_ way.

“She flirts with them.” The landlord finally said, clearing his throat. “And from what I heard from my niece and nephew, she doesn’t flirt like an inexperience teenager but someone who had years of experience. It seems innocent because my nephew tried to get her number and ask her on a date, but she turns him down and tells him that it would ruin his experience in the café. His friends and him made a bet about scoring her number but not a single one of them managed to do it.”

_At least I can rest easy with the knowledge that I’m not dealing with a teenager who is engaging in impulsive and risky sexual behaviour._ He grimaced and looked at the man, who wiggled his hands together. But even if Uzumaki didn’t have that particular brand of self-destructive tendencies, there were other warning signs such as the desire of her guardian to hide his involvement with her finances.

He took a deep breath. “You mentioned earlier that Jiraiya doesn’t want Uzumaki to know that he pays for her rent, why?”

“He thinks Uzumaki will try to pay him back.” The landlord replied with a grim tone. “He seems to believe Uzumaki has this belief that he wants something from her and that she would believe he didn’t think she could take care of herself.”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “And can she take care of herself?”

“She is a whole lot better than those college students I rented before her,” he replied with a casual shrug. “The apartment is immaculate and I actually told her that if she has the time then she should teach my daughter because god knows my kid leaves her room like a pig sty.”

_But if she had been alone since she was 13 then how could she have that level of discipline?_ The corner of his lips tugged downwards as the landlord looked at him with uneased eyes. There were still too many questions for him to ask but none of it seemed important. There was a more pressing matter at hand if he thought about it.

“Why would he presume Uzumaki believe that? Did he ever tell you why Uzumaki would believe that?” There had to be something else that was missing in the complex puzzle that was Uzumaki Naruto.

The landlord slumped his shoulder. “Told me that the girl had a rough childhood and that Uzumaki would never believe him if he said that he was doing it because he cares about her.”

_So I’m dealing with a teenager with trust issues and who seems to be developing into a workaholic._ He rubbed the back of his neck and regarded the door belonging to his student’s apartment. Therapy. That was one of the few solutions to this problem of hers. That girl was going to have to be convinced into going to therapy because there was no way this teenager could continue like this.

That potential inside of her would dwindle if she didn’t overcome her problems.

* * *

_You would think High School will be more difficult but it doesn’t feel difficult._

Naruto let out a quiet sigh as Lunch Rush handed her order of miso ramen. Their morning classes was nothing more than the usual subjects that had been carried on from Middle School with no new general subject being introduced to them. Their teachers spent the whole time, telling them about what they were going to learn in their semester and most of them were topics she had learnt in the Academy.

_My only struggle is going to be English!_ She scowled and shook her head. It might be different from her native language, way too confusing at times but she was going to do fine. This time she would try hard in school like she had done in Middle School, and she was going to get one of the top scores again. Because she was smart and definitely not an…

_You aren’t smart enough to make **that** score._

Dark brown eyes flashed before her eyes and a cruel voice echoed in her ear. This always happened. That stupid memory would always play in her mind whenever she just wanted to boost herself up. Naruto took a deep breath and felt her ribs cracked from the pressure before scanning the large, crowded cafeteria in front of her.

It was the first day of school but it was already clear everyone had friendship groups. Midoriya sat with Iida and Uraraka while Bakugou, unsurprisingly, sat by himself. _If I sit with him then he is going to rile me up until I yell at him and Midoriya will just ask questions about my chakra. That is way too risky if you asked me._ Naruto grimaced and shook her head. She could see Kendou sitting with a green-haired girl and a pale gray-haired girl, who looked so lifeless that a tickle of concern crept up into her stomach.

_“Does little **Naru-chan** want to make friends with them?”_A harsh voice whispered. Naruto stiffened and tightened her grip on the tray as cruel black eyes flashed before her eyes. _“Why would they want to be friends with a weakling like you? The moment they know how weak you are and how much of a bitch you can be, they will never want to be friends with you. How did Sakura react when you **ordered** her to be honest?”_

Naruto tightened her jaw as a student bumped against her. _“I didn’t order her to spill the truth! I asked her if she truly forgave me for not bringing the bastard back!”_

_“But you did **order** her because let’s face it: without Sasuke, she wouldn’t hang out with an **annoying** brat like you!”_The voice crackled and Naruto felt her blood boiling up with irritation. How the fuck did she order Sakura around? And their bond did not depend on Sasuke! They could have been friends without the bastard sitting between them. They didn’t need him.

_“I’m building a sand castle, help me build the tower!”_

No, **_she_** didn’t need him.

Another exhale and Naruto resumed scanning the cafeteria. Hadou-senpai waved her hand at her, lips curled into an eager grin as she gestured for her to take the empty seat beside Amajiki-senpai. No, it was dangerous to sit there. Memories would come hurling to her mind like a kunai and her heart would scream with agony again.

She crocked her head to the side when her eyes landed on the Heterochromatic-haired boy sitting by himself in one of the larger caferteria table. What was his name? He was her competitor in most of those Quirk Assessment Race. It started with a T that much could be certain. _Todoroki._ Right, that was the last name of the Pretty Boy.

And just like every pretty boy who had come through her life, her classmate had heterochromatic eyes filled with a chilly coldness that brought a shiver down her spine. Her throat tightened just a little bit but the voice inside of her head was quiet. Too quiet but that was good. It probably meant the voice knew just like her that there was no chance of friendship between them.

_But if I sit with him then I might be dealing with a wave of rabid admirers confessing their love for him and I’ll be another target again._ That was a huge risk for her to consider when it came to her seat. Most girls were cruel. A guy like Todoroki wouldn’t be bothered to set things straight which meant there would be a crowd of rabid fangirls trying to drag her name through the mud.

_But he won’t bother me and he will never try to be my friend; I won’t get hurt if I sit with him._

Crazy admirers trying to hurt her through harsh words was something that she could handle, but a potential friendship was going to break her again.

She slipped on a smile and headed towards the heterochromatic-haired boy. From the corner of her eye, she saw Hadou-senpai patting Amajiki-senpai’s back and had a tiny _heartbroken_ smile playing on her lips while Togata waved his hands like he was in some kind of concert. She noticed Yaoyorozu eyeing her with disbelief as if she didn’t expect her to sit near Todoroki.

When Naruto stood in front of Todoroki’s table, she cleared her throat and placed her bowl of ramen on the table. “Mind if I take a seat, Todoroki?”

“Go ahead.” He replied with a frown. She flashed him a large smile and sniffed the wonderful miso aroma coming out of her bowl. This was the good stuff. It smelled even better than Ichiraku ramen which should be impossible when it had the best smell in the world. She was going to take her sweet time with this bowl. Lick every droplet and savoured it with the honour that it deserved.

She split the chopsticks and began to eat her ramen. Some of the males stared at her with so much familiarity and that only served her to frown. Were those guys her customers? Most probably. That could be the only reason for those intense stares but if they thought she was going to flash them a flirty smile again, then they had another thing coming.

Her work shift hadn’t even started.

“Why did you ask to sit if you already made a decision to sit here?”

Naruto tore her eyes away from one of her former customers and locked her eyes on Todoroki. Her classmate looked calm and looked almost like he was an ice statue coming to life. His lips were tugged into a slight frown as if he couldn’t fathom the reason for her decision to sit in this empty table, instead of the crowded tables surrounding them.

She could be honest but there was absolutely no point of being honest.

“Because you look so _friendly_.” She laid the sarcasm as thick as her voice could make it and then tilted her head when Todoroki blinked at her like a confused little puppy. Those pretty heterochromatic eyes practically screamed of befuddlement. It was like her classmate did not understand the concept of sarcasm and maybe he did not understand the concept. It was like he had never interacted with other kids before.

After a couple of seconds, her classmate cleared his throat. “I…look friendly?”

_I guess I’m dealing with the clueless type._ She dropped her shoulders and curled her lips into a frown as heterochromatic eyes continued to look at her with disbelief. Her next couple of words should be nice because words could hurt. The wrong word might just stab him but _nice, kind words_ also gave people the wrong idea. It gave hope and it was so much better to not give hope, then not to deliver it.

“No, you look like you are a Dick.” Naruto slurped on her noodles and kept her composure when Todoroki blinked. She let out a little hiss of delight and allowed her eyes to gaze on those wide mismatch eyes. “The kind of Dick who doesn’t care about anyone’s problems but their own problems. I just thought since you are that kind of Dick then you won’t ask me any personal questions or try to hit on me.”

The boy frowned. “Why do you think I’m a Dick?”

“You got that aura of hate around you and to be honest you have the expression of an asshole,” Naruto replied. She pushed her noodles back and forth as her classmate clenched his jaw. She almost winced and the urge to apologize grew but she swallowed it down. “Look you might believe you are a wonderful guy but your eyes are… _so_ cold. It is like you don’t want people to get to know you.”

Her classmate said nothing. He didn’t glower or yell at her for judging him based on his appearance, he only inspected her with blank eyes. There were absolutely no emotion in his eyes as if those words hadn’t affected him, but it did affect him. She knew it from the way his jaw tightened and the subtle drop in his shoulders.

_“You have to apologize, Naruto-chan! You know you don’t like hurting people’s feelings.”_

That sounded something Hinata-chan would say to her but her throat clogged up at the idea of spitting out an apology. Why should she apologize? Apologizing without being sincere was bad. Horrible even and every word spilled out of her tongue had been the absolute truth. He wanted an answer and she had given it to him.

If she apologized and they somehow became friends, then she would be the one hurt.

She couldn’t afford another mistake.

* * *

_“You look like you are a Dick.”_

Those blunt words echoed in the back of his mind and no matter how much he tried to shove those words away, it would come back like a crashing train. Shouto rubbed his knuckles and tightened his jaw. Did he _really_ look like a dick? Was there an actual appearance that made someone an asshole? There must be if Uzumaki could be so confident with her words.

He snuck a glance at Uzumaki but the blond-haired girl didn’t seem to notice. She was only eyeing the door with weariness before flickering her eyes to the clock. Should he ask her about what part of him looked like an asshole? He should ask her but what if she asked him to look at a mirror? Because he couldn’t tell her that he despised mirrors.

Why would he? The scar on his face would always remind him of what his mother did to him.

That he looked so much like that bastard.

“So Uzumaki, are you looking forward to All Might teaching us?” Kaminari asked. The blond-haired boy had a strange smile on his face but Uzumaki did not seem faze or disgusted by the smile. If anything, the girl regarded him with a smile and the blond-haired boy looked even more eager than before. “You must be gearing up to show him just how amazing you are.”

Uzumaki mirrored Kaminari’s smile and leaned her body forward. “Amazing? Me? Why do you think he would be impressed with me when you have such an amazing Quirk?”

The teen blinked. “You think I have an amazing Quirk?”

“It is electrifying, isn’t it?” She asked, smiling even wider at the male. Kaminari bobbed his head and flushed a faint shade of red before turning his head away from her. Shouto tilted his head and watched with furrowed eyebrows when the smile on the girl’s face faded. The blonde slumped her whole body as if the whole interaction drained her.

There was slight bags in her eyes like his fellow classmate hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep and her blue eyes looked almost dull as if all the emotions inside of her had been drained out of her. If she didn’t want to interact with Kaminari then why did she interact with him? And if she was exhausted then why was she trying to pretend she was energetic?

“I am,” the door to their classroom slid open as a loud voice instantly boomed across the classroom, which was then followed by a bright laugh, “coming through the door like a normal person.”

He looked straight ahead to the door and kept his composure composed when All Might stepped through the door. A large, _goofy_ smile played on the man’s lips as he strolled straight towards the podium with his cape flying behind him. The sight of the Number One Hero, his childhood hero, should bring a flutter in his stomach but it did not.

_I wouldn’t be this focus on Uzumaki if she hadn’t been so blunt._ He eyed his blond-haired classmate and felt his heart stopped when his eyes took in the small smile on his classmate’s face. Her smile was nice, warm…and _genuine_. Those emotionless blue eyes lit up with amusement as if the hero was the funniest person in the world.

That smile was like a ray of sunlight on a cold day.

He blinked and shook his head before glancing back at his classmate. The lit-up amusement in those blue eyes were gone, replaced with a nostalgia and that sunny smile was replaced with a bitter smile. His stomach crashed like it had endured a car crash and Shouto thinned his lips. That was a rather odd reaction from a smile but it was the first time Uzumaki made a genuine smile.

His chest tightened and he almost squirmed in his seat when those blue eyes turned from nostalgia to pain.

_Why is she reacting that strongly to All Might?_

Uzumaki hunched her shoulders and she must have felt his stare because she scowled at him. He should look away but all he could do was inspect her. Faint dark bags sat underneath her eyes and her uniform seemed slightly baggier because the seam reached passed her shoulder. If he hadn’t seen his classmate go to Lunch Rush for a third round of ramen, he would have presume the girl didn’t eat.

"I teach Foundational Hero Training." Shouto looked away from Naruto and focused his eyes on their teacher. All Might placed his hands on his hips and locked eyes on the excited students. "Foundational Hero Training is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You will take the most units of this subject!"

The Number One Hero struck a pose. He winded his arm backwards while his muscular body coiled back tight like a bow. The hero whipped around, brandishing a card for everyone to see. Shouto raised a single eyebrow when he caught sight of the English word for battle. So they were going to have a fight on the first _official_ day of school.

He thinned his lips and glanced at Uzumaki. His female classmate had a frown playing on her lips and her bright blue eyes darkened with sadness. In the background, he could hear All Might explaining to them about their first lesson and how they prepared their requested gear. He should focus but all he could do was stare at the girl, who jumped to conclusion about him.

Even though the clicks of the wall sliced through the air and the cheers of his classmates exploded against his ears, he could only gazed at the pained eyes that belonged to Uzumaki.

_“No, you look like you are a Dick.”_

_“The kind of Dick who doesn’t care about anyone’s problems but their own problems.”_

He knew he wasn’t friendly and most of the time, it did not bother him one bit. Why should he be friendly when he had _that_ bastard breathing down his neck? When he had to prove to Endeavor that he didn’t need to become the best hero with the use of his fire side? But Uzumaki made him sound like he was his father.

He was nothing like _that_ bastard because his father had never seemed to care about his mother and her feelings. Everything was about him and his needs. _I’m never going to be like him._ Shouto bobbed his head and pushed his chair back before making his way to the other side of the room, where their gears sat on the shelves.

His steps slowed down as he took in Uzumaki, who looked almost resigned at what was happening right now. Even though he was behind her, it was clear that every step his classmate took was one that hurt her and if his classmates had issues then it was fair. He should ask her about her feelings because no one seemed to ask or comfort his mother.

His grandparents from his mother side of the family never seemed to care about her feelings.

He couldn’t help his mother but he could try and help Uzumaki. He should make her think that her own personal feelings mattered and that because he might look like an asshole, did not mean he was actually one. Maybe the best way to show that he did care was to ask…

“Are you okay, Uzumaki?”

Blond-hair whipped backwards, smacking his cheeks and blue eyes landed on him. She furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side as if he posed a very difficult question to her. Seconds passed and the blonde did not reply to him, but the furrowed eyebrows faded and a large smile broke across her face.

“I’m fine.” She finally chirped.

Shouto eyed the grinning blonde but said nothing. _You are definitely not fine._ The words were on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed it down. It was clear to anyone with eyes that his classmate was anything but fine. Her lips trembled and her whole body trembled like a shaky leaf. The only steady thing was that large, insincere smile playing on her lips and maybe that was her way of telling people that she didn’t want anyone to know she was in pain.

Should he call her out about not being fine and that she could talk to him?

_“Would you even talk to someone about your own issues if someone suddenly asks you?”_ A voice similar to his sister asked him. He stopped in his tracks and thinned his lips. There was no way he could talk about his mother’s mental health decline, the harsh training sessions with his father and the death of his oldest brother.

Besides what could he say to her? If he couldn’t talk about his own problems then Uzumaki certainly was not going to open her heart and tell him about the problems she had growing up. If that fake smile and the lie told him anything then it was that. But keeping quiet wasn’t going to help his female classmate.

No, there had to be a way to get the girl to open up to him.

_“I’ve decided to go into medical welfare.”_

He didn’t completely understand what it meant but he guessed his brother must have a better idea of how to help his classmate. Shouto rubbed the back of his neck. How was he going to interact with his brother? Natsuo wasn’t his biggest fan but if he wanted to help Uzumaki then it would be a good idea to go to his brother.

Out of everyone he knew, only Natsuo might have an idea on how to handle the girl.

* * *

_Is it really a good idea to make us have a battle on the first day?_

The lively, excited chatter of her classmates sounded muffled against Naruto’s ears. She could see her fellow students rubbing their new costumes with pleased smiles on their faces. She glanced down at black and orange qipao and let out a tired sigh. This was definitely the best thing she could do and even though dresses didn’t suit her, her best weapon had always been her body.

Even though her job was no longer being a kunoichi, she still needed some kind of element that would distract people from her attacks. _The only thing that makes the whole thing fine is the fact I have some biker pants underneath this._ She glanced down at the orange biker shorts that barely peaked from underneath her dress.

She shook her head and stared at All Might. The Number One Hero had been scanning the entire room during the whole time that they had been in this room. His blue eyes seemed to be taking every detail like he was trying to burn the image into his mind. Naruto frowned when her teacher’s eyes landed on her, his blue eyes growing larger at the sight of her. His expression turned pale as if he was seeing a ghost.

Realization washed over her when the man kept flickering his eyes at her and Bakugou.

Was he jumping to the same conclusion as their middle school classmates?

_“Uzumaki, you know you look kinda similar to Bakguou and his Mom!”_

Those words had been stated whenever their classmates caught sight of the two of them together. The only resemblance they had was the shape of their nose and maybe their lips but other than that, there was no resemblance between them. Her parents had come from Konoha or so that was what she had been forced to presume.

_“When you become a Chunin or when you turn 16 then I will tell you everything you need to know about your parents, but let me reassure you Naruto that they truly did love you.”_

Who the hell was going to tell her who her parents were if the Third Hokage was dead? And how did he even know if they loved her or not?

No, this was not the time to wallow-up in self-pity.

She took a deep breath and smiled as wide as her mouth would allow her to go. Her cheeks screamed from the attempt while her lungs and eyes burned with a familiar emotion. _Push through this and when you get back home, you can get some ice-cream and eat it with your heart content._ She just needed to get through the rest of the day with a smile on her face.

“Young Uzumaki!” Naruto blinked and jolted when All Might cleared his throat. Her teacher stood right in front of her with a box in his hand and blue eyes focused on her. No, not on her. No, those eyes fixated on her golden hair and moved down to her eyes. It was like he was trying to figure something out but he shook his head.

She cleared her throat. “Yes, All Might-sensei?”

“Take a letter from the box if you will!” All Might jostled the box and Naruto just stared at the box. Why did she need a letter? She glanced at her classmates and nodded when she caught sight of the letters in their hand. She pried her lips into a huge smile and pulled out a letter from the box.

Most of her classmates just stared at her and then shook their heads. The whiskered teen relaxed her shoulders when they looked away from her and she turned her gaze on the letter in her hand. C, she got the letter C but why the hell were they using letters? What had happen during the time she had been having her mini-flashback?

“You didn’t pay attention.” Naruto blinked and turned her whole body around, only to yelp at the sight of Todoroki standing behind her. His heterochromatic eyes lacked any emotions, no mockery or pig-headed arrogance at the knowledge that she had been distracted. In his hand was the letter B and for a brief moment, she wondered if there were going to fight.

She curled her lips into a thin line. “I didn’t realize he had already started the whole explanation.”

_You should pay more attention, you knucklehead!_ She waited for Todoroki to say something like that to her because that was what people would say whenever they found out that she got distracted. But her classmate didn’t look at her like she was an idiot or bothered by the fact her mind hadn’t been with the game. Instead, he nodded and eyed their remaining classmates.

“We are being split up into either being heroes or villains.” Todoroki explained. His tone was calm and soft like a gentle breeze while his heterochromatic eyes stared at her with an intensity that brought a shiver down her spine. “And we are going to be fighting a 2-on-2 indoor battle—”

“—There is 21 of us.” Was there going to be a group of 1? Or were they going to have a group of 3? Because it didn’t make sense.

Todoroki bobbed his head. “Kirishima pointed that out to All Might and he told us that there is going to be one team with three students.”

“Wouldn’t it make sense to make everyone in a group of 3?”

Todoroki nodded and shrugged his shoulders. Naruto sighed. Well at least she was now caught up with what was going on in the classroom but it was strange too when she thought about it. _Why did he explain the whole thing to me?_ She furrowed her eyebrows together and tilted her head to the side. Why had he explain things without insulting her? Or in such a controlled matter?

Every Pretty Boy she had ever met—stoic or not— had always found some way to belittled her, so why was Todoroki being patient with her?

“Everyone find your teammates!”

All Might’s booming voice broke the spell between them and Naruto cleared her throat. He glanced at her letter, tilted his head down before making his way through the crowd of screaming students, who were calling out their letters out loud. She glanced down at her letter and stared at the crowds of students.

She was either going to have one partner or two partners but what was certain was that she was going to be in a team.

_“Why do I have to be in the same team as the bastard!”_

_“No! I’m in the same team as the Deadlast!”_

Her chest tightened and Naruto furiously shook her head. That part of her life was done. She was never ever going back to Konoha, not when she fucked up big time when it came to Sasuke. The one person she thought who had her back, had exiled her from the only home that she had ever known. It seemed like being a jinchuuriki and a weapon was not enough for her to not face the consequence.

Why did she have to be the scapegoat when she hadn’t been the only one in the retrieval team?

“Whiskers!” Naruto jerked her head up as a hand grabbed hold of her wrist. Vermillion eyes met her own, frustration and irritation swirling in his eyes and the whiskered teen tore her hand away from the grip.

She tightened her jaw. “Why did you grab my hand, Explosive Head?”

“Because I’m praying to fucking god that I have you as my partner,” he barked. Naruto blinked and inspected her classmate before holding up the letter in her hand. Bakugou inspected the letter for a good five seconds and then slumped his shoulders. “Fucking hell, I’m going to be working with one of those side characters? This is a fucking pain in my ass.”

Naruto sighed. “I pity the poor person that has to work with you.”

“Screw you,” Bakugou scowled. “You make it seem like I’m the worst partner in the world when I’m the fucking best partner that they are going to get.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Who wants to work with an asshole that screams every five minutes and throws a fit whenever something doesn’t get his way?”

“You are never going to let me live it down, are you?” He grumbled.

The blonde shrugged and nodded. If she was a genuinely nice person like Hinata-chan then she would make sure to let him forget about it, but she always felt some resemblance of amusement whenever her classmates bristled at the reminder of his less-than-amazing behaviour. Honestly if Sakura ever thought she was childish then she had never seen Bakugou.

She offered a little wave and watched as Bakugou stormed towards the crowd of students. Most of them looked almost relieved to know Bakugou and her weren’t working together as a team. It made sense. After her, the blond-haired boy had the second highest score in the practical portion of the exam and well it was clear to everyone that the boy could be brutal.

“Uzumaki, can I please check your letter?”

The blonde jerked and twisted her whole body around to meet the calm, analytical eyes of Yaoyorozu. Her female classmate wore a high-collared, sleeveless crimson leotard with silver lines at her waist and around her arms. The skin from her neck to just below her navel was exposed, which made some sense when she considered the girl’s Quirk. There was also two golden utility belts around her waist.

She had to give her classmate some respect for walking around like she was the boss, because most girls in Japan wouldn’t have that level of composure.

_No, I think that there are some kunoichi in Konoha who wouldn’t be able to show that much skin._ Nervous pale, lavender eyes flashed before her eyes and Naruto felt an excruciating burn in her chest. Her best friend would flush a bright shade of red and squeaked before looking everywhere but at the teenager.

Her best friend was brilliant at many things but seduction classes had always been her worst subject. _It is a pity too because the Mutt would need her to flirt shamelessly for him to realize that she adores the living hell out of him._ An innocent smile and some compliments alongside some subtle cues of flirting and a man becomes putty in her hand.

Yaoyorozu relaxed her shoulders. “So we are going to be the team of three.”

“We?” Naruto tilted her head and her female classmate nodded before shooting a weary look over her shoulder. Mineta stood behind them with flushed cheeks and eyes filled with excitement. He wiggled and bounced around like it was his dream come true. Yaoyorozu wrinkled her face and looked almost uncomfortable with the leery gaze.

_If we are going to work together then I’ll make it clear on who is the boss here._

She strolled towards Mineta and picked up the teen by his cape. There were two ways in which she could do this: punch the living hell out of him and risk being called abusive, or she scared the living shit out of him. _If this was Konoha then I wouldn’t have to worry because boys never take us seriously._ But it was different here.

“Let me make one thing clear to you: keep this up and I’ll guarantee you that no girl is ever going to look at you, much less want to sleep with you if you act like a dog.” The smile on Mineta’s face faded and he paled just a little bit as she narrowed her eyes at him. “Now act like a student, get yourself together or I _will do it_ for you.”

Mineta gulped and vigorously bobbed his head. “Y-Yes, Ma’am.”

“You got him under control just like that.” Yaoyorozu commented with wide eyes.

Naruto sighed. “If you keep quiet and don’t warn him then he is going to grow up into being a perverted old man that chases anything with a skirt and writes books that makes no fucking sense. Besides, he needs to learn now before he fucks up a job because he thought with his dick instead of his brain.”

That was the main reason for her actions, not because her stomach churned with discomfort at the uncomfortable look on her classmate’s face.

_I don’t want to get close to anyone._

Maybe if she repeated it then she could believe that she had changed from that naïve 12-year-old girl.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be some mention or glimpse into child abuse so if you feel uncomfortable then I would advise you to skip the flashback.

_(12 years ago)_

Uzumaki Naruto was about three years old when she started to understand and realize that the Matron treated her differently from all the other children in the orphanage.

There were a lot of horrible memories she had in the orphanage but there was one memory that always stuck out to her. She had been young but it was the first _real_ memory she could remember. At the age of three, a child should be able to freely show their emotions. If an adult asked them about whether or not they were happy then a child should be able to express their answers.

A child should be able to cry and smile from their heart because that was important in a child’s development.

At the age of three, the Matron hadn’t moved her to the smallest room in the orphanage. No, instead she shared a room with five other girls in the second smallest room in the orphanage. Even now, Naruto could still recall their names. _Asami, Emica, Koharu, Kokoro and Nozomi._ Those were the names of her roommates.

There had been only one difference between her and the other girls. It wasn’t their ages because the Matron grouped them by ages and months. All six of them were three years old. Their birthdays were in September with Asami being born on the 1stof October. Naruto was the only one born on 10th of October.

At the age of three, she didn’t connect the dots to her birthday to the new rules of Asami’s new parents.

_(She didn’t fully realize until she was 12-years-old and that was only when Mizuki ran his mouth about the huge secret that the Hokage had hidden from her)._

The six of them had gathered around Asami’s bed. It had been one of the bigger beds, which could fit at least two of the girls. Asami used to share her bed with Kokoro and underneath the bed, there would be a hidden stash of chocolate. It was a well-known secret in everyone in the orphanage because the Matron despised it whenever a child ate chocolate before bedtime.

The Matron never allowed her to eat chocolate but Asami would always give her chocolate. That was because they were friends, the best of friends and nothing was ever going to ruin their friendship.

_(But something did ruin their friendship and this memory would be the first of many betrayals)._

_“My_ _new Mommy says I can’t hang out with you.”_ Asami declared. Her brown eyes settled on her and there was almost an uncomfortable look on her eyes, but at that time Naruto didn’t notice it. She didn’t understand why her best friend would say those words. At that time, she had been sobbing like a little baby at the knowledge her best friend was getting adopted.

_That her best friend was leaving her behind in this room_.

The other girls blinked and knitted their eyebrows together. Emi, the second oldest person in the room, tilted her head. “ _All of us?”_

Asami shook her head and pointed to Naruto. _“No, only **her.** She says I must never play with her.”_

Even when Naruto looked back on this particular day, she would always remember how those warm eyes had turned so cold. It had been like a blizzard and the warm room had turned so icy cold from those eyes. Her lips trembled and her whole body shuddered as her eyes burned with even more tears. The other girls exchanged glances before looking back at Asami.

It was Nozomi that asked the question which would forever colored her perception about herself.

_“Mi-chan, why did your new Mommy say that?”_ Nozomi asked, flickering her eyes to Naruto. “ _Mi-chan, you can’t stop playing with Naru-chan! Do you see how sad you are making her?”_

Asami clenched her jaw and her brown eyes wavered just a little bit before hardening again. _“My new Mommy says that the reason you and the other girls aren’t getting new parents is because of **her**! They told me that Naruto is bad luck and that she is a monster!”_

All of the other girls froze and then swirled their heads at her. Their eyes wavered as if they didn’t know whether to believe Asami or not but it didn’t take long before their eyes swirled with anger. An anger that wasn’t directed at Asami but at her. Naruto could only stare at her friend with tear-filled eyes as her heart burned with both anger and hurt.

_Monster? But I’m not a monster!_ When those mean boys pulled Asami’s hair, she was the one that defended her when all of the other girls were too afraid to do anything. She punched him and maybe it wasn’t a good idea, but the boy deserved it. He shouldn’t have made Asami weep like a baby but that didn’t make her a monster.

_“I’m not a monster!”_ She snarled. Tears spilled out of her eyes and her heart howled with grief over the fact that her friend would say such mean words to her. Naruto glanced at the other girls but not a single one of them reached their hand out to her. Not a single one of them looked ready to speak up and tell Asami-chan that she was being mean again.

Why would they?

Children believed the words of an adult and the desire to be adopted, to be apart of a family, was greater than any desire to protect their friends.

_“You’re a monster!”_

_“Monster!”_

The girls circled around her like hyenas. They jeered and called her by that horrible name as Asami looked at her with cruelty in her eyes. _Where was that meaness when the boys bullied you? When one of the older girls taunted you for having buck-teeth?_ She tightened her jaws as the words continued to stab through her heart.

_“Your name shouldn’t be Naruto! You aren’t Naru-chan! Your name is Monster!”_

More tears streamed down her eyes but she wasn’t going to accept their new horrible nickname for her. _Her name wasn’t Monster! It was Naruto!_ Her grandmother called her Naru-chan! She was her grandmother’s little maelstorm and even though Naruto didn’t know what that meant, she knew she wasn’t going to sit there and allow herself to get bullied.

So she charged right in there and smashed her fist against Asami’s stomach. She kicked Nozomi in the shins and continued to pummel them as a rage inside of her grew.

_“Stop hitting us!”_

They continued on with the name calling even though she had been sobbing like a little baby and Naruto would make sure that they knew that she wasn’t someone that could be easily bullied.

On the fifth scream, the door to their room slammed open and the matron stormed in. The screams and cries stopped. Naruto dropped Asami’s ponytail and placed her hands on either sides of her body. The matron scanned the room and the moment her eyes landed on her, it became cold. It always became cold whenever it happened.

The matron always looked at her like she was a monster, like she was someone bad but she wasn’t bad. She wouldn’t even have punch Asami and the others if the girls hadn’t called her a monster. More tears spilled out of her eyes and a little bit of snot dribbled down from her nose.

_“What happened?”_ The Matron demanded. Her eyes fixated on Asami and then moved to the other five girls but her eyes never landed on her. It never did because the Matron never looked at her. She never called her by her name. She threw away any drawing she had ever given her and seemed intent on pretending she didn’t exist.

Koharu smoothed her hair and smiled innocently before pointing at Naruto. _“ **She** started a fight with Mi-chan! This is all **her** fault! She started the whole stupid fight!”_

_“I didn’t start the fight! Mi-chan said that my name from now on is Monster!”_ She balled her hands into a fist and stared up at the Matron. “ _My name is Naruto! I’m Naru-chan! I’m Naru-chan, not Monster!”_

She wanted a hug and for once since she came into this orphanage, Naruto wanted a hug from this cold woman. The Matron would give her that much comfort, wouldn’t she? She always hugged Mi-chan and the other children whenever someone insulted them. She would scold them for being cruel and those girls had been cruel.

  
The Matron should scold them because that was what an adult should so.

_“Why do you look at me like that?”_ The Matron barked. Her cold eyes became even colder and her whole body trembled like she was the one hurt. _“You’re a monster! Monsters like you don’t deserve to cry!”_

Why was the Matron being so mean?

If her Granny was still alive then she would have hugged her and tell her that she wasn’t a monster. _You’re my little angel, aren’t you Naru-chan?_ She didn’t understand why her grandmother had to go to the other side. She wanted her grandmother. Granny loved her. Granny would have yelled at those mean girls and tell the Matron off for being mean.

Naruto sniffed and sobbed even harder but if she ever thought for a moment that the matron would take pity on her and have those girls apologize to her then she was… _wrong_.

The Matron scowled and raised her hand before smacking her hard against the her cheek. It stung and the pain inside of her heart grew even more from those actions. No one said a word and the other children just stared up at the Matron with wide eyes. Naruto? She just blinked and looked at the cold, harden eyes of the matron.

_“Monsters like you don’t deserve to cry.”_

No one saved her that day and she learned that crying didn’t fix anything.

That her tears and feelings would always matter less.

It was also the day she decided to work hard to prove to people that she wasn’t a monster.

* * *

_There are several ways for Kaminari and Jirou to enter._

Naruto thinned her lips and examined the map. From the corner of her eye, she could see Mineta eyeing her and Yaoyorozu’s chest with hunger in his eyes. It seemed like once this whole thing was over, she was going to have to have a talk with the boy about keeping his leering eyes to himself because Yaoyorozu looked like she wanted to shudder from those leering eyes.

She let out a sigh and tapped her fingers against the various entrances. The back entrance would be a terrible place to enter for Jirou and Kaminari due to the fact that the door was locked alongside the windows. They would need to destroy the window and that would cause a sound. The front entrance would be the best choice because it would cause less sound.

It was the perfect spot for infiltration but it was the most risky one because it would be the one with the most guards.

Yaoyorozu cleared her throat. “I believe Kaminari and Jirou would take the front entrance.”

“I think so too,” Naruto curled her lips into a frown. “It would be their best option and we need to think of a way to make things difficult. We need to think of a counter strategy and If I remember correctly: Kaminari uses electricity right?”

“Yes.” Yaoyorozu eyed the walls. “And Jirou’s Quirk works like a headphone cable.”

_That would mean she is susceptible to sound._ She poked her tongue against her cheek and darted her eyes to her black-haired classmate. Her female classmate had her eyes focused on their provided map but the way she kept inching closer to her told her that for all of her confidence, her classmate was bothered by Mineta. The boy did have his perverse eyes focused on Yaoyorozu’s large bust.

Her male classmate inched closer and his hand reached forward but Naruto grabbed his hand. “Mineta, if you value your chances of fathering children then you will focus on the task at hand or I’ll consider smashing my foot against your balls.”

“You can’t expect me to focus when her boobs are right in front of me!” Mineta whined. “She shouldn’t have made her costume so sexy!”

She pinched her nose and whacked the male on the head. “Are you seriously blaming her for her costume for your own perverted nature? It is your fault for not keeping your head outside the gutter! Now focus and start helping us on how to win the battle and not how you can sneak a feel!”

Mineta gulped and vigorously bobbed his head.

_If he was more interested in just getting a date then this wouldn’t be an annoyance._ She exhaled and darted her eyes to Yaoyorozu. Her female classmate shot her grateful look and Naruto looked away. She felt something stirring inside of her stomach but the whiskered teen shook her head. Just because she got the boy under control, did not mean she needed another friend.

“Thank you for keeping him under control.” Yaoyorozu whispered as Mineta focused on the map. “And thank you for not blaming my choice of outfit for his despicable behavior.”

Naruto dropped her shoulders and kept her eyes focused on the map. “He is a typical boy and boys like to blame girls instead of taking responsibility for their actions. When it comes to boys like Mineta, you ignore those shits and remind them that you are the one in charge and not them. You show that you aren’t scared by their disgusting eyes.”

“His eyes are just creepy.”

“Mineta won’t be the first or last male species to look at you like you are a piece of meat,” Naruto darted her eyes to Mineta and then looked back at her classmate. “Sometimes that is good because you can milk things out of them like money and stuff but that won’t work if you show them that you are bothered by their gaze. No one gives a shit if you are upset or bothered by uncomfortable looks so you have to fake it until you make it.”

Yaoyorozu blinked. “Uzumaki, do you usually get those looks?”

“From the moment I turned 12.”

Her classmate grimaced and looked almost disturb by her comment but Naruto ignored it. She had four years to grow _somewhat_ comfortable with her body. Even though she might not be the most pretty girl, she used whatever asset she had to her advantage. It was one of the few ways that she could get ahead in life and one of the few ways she weaseled out more money from her customers.

Something poked against her shoulder and she twisted her head around to meet Mineta’s eyes. For the first time since they entered the building, her male classmate had his eyes focused on her own eyes instead of straying down to her chest.

“Can’t we use your clones to fight them?” He suggested. “You can overpower them with those clones and we will win.”

Naruto eyed her classmate. “That would be boring and predictable. Did you see what happen between Bakugou and Midoriya? Even though I doubt Iida wanted things to go that way, they had the idea of going for a full-blown fight and look what that costed them. Midoriya is in the infirmary and Bakugou is sulking like a big baby.”

“I dislike the plan too,” Yaoyorozu admitted. The black-haired girl tapped her finger against the map and thinned her lips. “But not because of what Uzumaki had said. If we allowed Uzumaki to fight them then she will be doing all the work, and we wouldn’t have learnt anything from the experience.”

Mineta flung his arms up in the air. “So what? We just have to capture them and I don’t know about you two but I don’t want to be electrocuted by Kaminari.”

_Capture them? Our goal is to capture them._ Naruto twisted the map around and eyed the front entrance on the map. If it was just to capture them then there were a million things that could be done. Kaminari might have a powerful Quirk but the male had a terrible weakness when it came to girls. One compliment and he became complacent.

  
But to use her body at this stage was just pointless and stupid.

“We don’t need to fight them.” Naruto placed her hands on her hips and stared at Mineta. “And you, my little _perverted_ friend are going to be the person that will help us win this battle.”

Mineta frowned and pointed at himself. “Me?”

“His Quirk would be useful in this scenario,” Yaoyorozu observed as her black eyes landed on the male. “You are thinking of using his Quirk to glue them on the spot, aren’t you? But wouldn’t we lose points because the whole scenario rests on us fighting them?”

Naruto rubbed her jaw. “All Might never said that it was compulsory for us to fight them and do you really want to go through all the effort of fighting them? And if we are thinking like villains then we need to be paranoid. We need to make their life hell before they reach the big boss, which would be the three of us.”

“You are planning to trap them, aren’t you?” Mineta bounced up and down like an excited little bunny.

The blonde regarded him. “Well someone is finally using their brain.”

Her classmate looked almost put-off by her comment while Yaoyorozu quirked her lips into a smile. The blonde stared at her classmate for a good couple of seconds before making her way towards the wall. There shouldn’t be any noises outside the building, which would make her job of eavesdropping easy.

Nodding her head, Naruto channelled her chakra to her ears and pressed it against the wall. The whole building was quiet except for the occasional rat racing across the hallway. She hummed and tapped her finger against the door. Her lips tugged into a slight smile when heavy, loud footsteps resonated against the air.

Judging from the footstep alone, it had to be Jirou.

_“Are you sure we should go by the front entrance, Jirou?”_ Kaminari demanded. His tone was filled with unease and despite the wall separating them, the blonde could imagine a look of unease on his face.

The footstep stopped and a rock let out a little hiss as Jirou replied. _“The back entrance would be the most obvious place that they think we would come! They wouldn’t think we were coming from the front entrance.”_

Naruto removed her head from the wall and turned her whole body towards her two teammates. She knelt down and gestured for the two teens to gather around her. The two teens exchanged glances before shuffling closer to her until they were huddled together like a bunch of penguins. _I don’t want them to be that close but this is good enough for me._

“Yaoyorozu, I know you can make practically anything so you think you can make a bunch of wires and spray paint?” Naruto paused and tilted her head to the side. “And could you also make a bunch of ping-pong balls too? Now Mineta, you know what your job is right? Well I need you to put your balls in these areas.”

She marked them on the map and Mineta looked at her like she was the devil. Her female classmate stared at her with wonder as if she hadn’t realized that they could go this far in their plans. But their blond-haired teacher underestimated them. He shouldn’t have given them a loophole, not when trap-making and pranks had always been her speciality.

Her classmates had no idea of the trap that they were going to walk into and the utter humiliation that they would experience.

* * *

_"Rational judgement is a key component in battle. While the previous team were too quick to act with their emotions, it seems that Team C and Team J are showing better control over their emotions. Can anyone tell me where they can improve on?"_

All Might scanned the room, blue eyes lingering on the curious expression of his students, and he paused when his eyes caught sight of Bakugou. From the moment the boy lost to Midoriya, he had become quiet and almost complacent if that was the right word to use. Those vermillion eyes were now focused on the screen, more specifically on Young Uzumaki.

_His mother and grandmother would still have a photo of his uncle._ All Might grimaced and looked at the screen. There had been a few cases that he couldn’t solve but the case of Akimoto Minato had been a case that would forever haunt his memories and dreams. The boy had the same exact shade of blond as Uzumaki Naruto and the same blue eyes as his female student.

If Minato was truly alive then All Might would have made the presumption that Uzumaki Naruto was that boy’s daughter, but the boy had been declared legally dead at the age of what could have been his 15thbirthday.

“They aren’t working together as a team?” All Might blinked and turned to Tsuyu. The green-haired girl had her head tilted to the side and a tiny frown played on the female’s lips. “It seems like Uzumaki have been making all of the decisions without asking anyone’s opinion.”

All Might shook his head and stared at Uzumaki. The 15-year-old girl had been sitting between Mineta and Yaoyorozu throughout the exchange, acting almost like a barrier and a bodyguard when it came to those two teens. It never escaped his notice that the girl had been able to keep the lustful boy under a tight leash.

It was a wonder when he considered that most girls at her age, would have found it difficult to keep the boy under control.

“Uzumaki did talk to them about the plans.” All Might rubbed his jaw. “Their plan makes good use of all of their Quirks but there is another problem that is more subtle if you think about it.”

Bakugou cleared his throat. “She might be planning to trap them but she is making the presumption that those extras are coming in from the front entrance which leaves the other entrances unguarded.”

“You’re indeed correct, Young Bakugou.” All Might stared at the other screens, which revealed the other entrances. Unlike the first entrance, he could not make out any sign of a trap being laid. The corridor was completely bared in those entrance, no wires or balls anywhere. That could be his student’s downfall.

Kirishima frowned. “How do you know that there is a trap? I can’t see any difference between the entrances.”

“Whiskers is a good artist,” Bakugou commented. Everyone blinked and turned their head at the blond-haired teen, who now had his arms folded against his chest. “And that paint job she made on those balls is good enough for even a professional not to notice it.”

Todoroki nodded. “It looks like a job of a professional.”

“I don’t even know how Whiskers could do a paint job that quickly even with clones,” Bakugou stated. “She did it like a natural delinquent.”

_It shows a lot of experience but there is another observation that young Bakugou missed._ Toshinori frowned and eyed the wires that barely glinted on the monitor. His blond-haired female student had done an amazing job in hiding those wires and ping-pong balls, but what on Earth was that girl planning to do with those things? And was she the one that figured out his loop-hole?

Most likely.

All Might rubbed his jaw and took a deep breath. Out of all of the students so far, it seemed like only Uzumaki was willing to use a dirty tactic to win her match. It was a smart move, a typical move for a very smart Villain and most of the time Villains were smart. But the level of planning that his student had, seemed higher than a typical villain.

_“Shit! It’s a trap!”_ Kaminari’s voice rang out from the speakers as the monitor played the scene before them. Kaminari tripped over the wire, head smashing against the painted balls as a cluster of ping-pong balls shot through the air. A smoke screen erupted from those balls, destroying any chance that they had of observing the screen.

Whispers broke out in the room and it was Ojiro, who asked. “When did they put the wires?”

Everyone exchanged glances as laughter erupted from the speakers. It was a girlish laugh, one filled with joy and mischief, and if All Might had to guess from the unsynchronized laughter then the laughter must be coming from the clones. All Might grimaced and stared at the monitor. Golden sparks could be seen from the smoke screen and Toshinori winced when a loud crash pierced through the air.

_“Don’t underestimate a master prankster!”_ A voice yelled. It sounded like Uzumaki but it did not feel like her. This voice sounded more cheerful, nothing like the sullen girl that he had seen when he entered the room. 

_“Jirou! I’m stuck! I can’t move my head!”_ Kaminari screamed. All Might winced and watched as the young man tried to move his head from the ground, only to be pulled right back in. If he recalled from Aizawa’s files, this would probably had to be the work of Mineta’s Quirk. _This group probably has to be the most coordinated one so far and I doubt we will get to see a plan as well planned as this._

Those students were definitely going to be a group that they should watch out for in the future.

_No, I would have to say that Uzumaki is the one that we should watch out for in the future._ He curled his lips into a smile and nearly chuckled when he caught sight of the tied up bodies of Jirou and Kaminari. Right beside the two tied up teens were Uzumaki and her clones. Uzumaki looked unimpressed while her clones high-fived each other.

None of the student said a word as they processed what had just happened. Most of them exchanged surprised glances with the only exception being Bakugou and Todoroki. Bakugou looked unimpressed and judging from the little smirk, he presumed that the male had figured out something like this could happen.

Todoroki just stared at the whiskered teen with blank eyes but All Might could see a subtle hint of interest behind those blank eyes.

“They really fought like villains.” Tsuyu tilted her head.

Kirishima bobbed his head and curled his lips into a scowl. “They didn’t even give them a chance to fight! This was anything but manly!”

“It isn’t unfair when you consider the fact they were given the roles of villains,” Todoroki counterargued. He darted his eyes to the monitor before focusing his steel gaze on the other teens. “The fact that they were given the roles of villains means that they have every right to go with this strategy.”

Bakugou grunted. “Seriously what kind of Villains would give the heroes a chance to attack? It’s a better idea for them to have a trap then to allow them an opportunity to attack.”

“Then why didn’t you do that?” Kirishima asked with a raised eyebrow.

The blond-haired boy growled and raised his fist at the male. “Wanna die, Spikey?”

All Might shook his head and tuned out the brewing argument between the two boys. His student was right to say that the students made the right call to make a trap but there was something odd about the trap-making if you asked him. _It didn’t feel like something an oridinary student could think of, not with how tight the time limit was._ He curled his lips into a frown.

As the argument continued to brew in the background, All Might gazed at the monitor and then looked down at the file. _Uzumaki Naruto._ That last name correlated with Uzushiokage last name and the male did say that he had two sisters when he asked about his family. Maybe Uzumaki Naruto was that young man’s sister? They did share a few similar features.

Their eye shapes were similar after all.

_But it doesn’t explain why she looks like **him.**_ All Might grimaced and rubbed his jaw before flickering his eyes to the corridor. Perhaps, he should ask Midoriya if his middle school classmate ever talked about her parents or if she carried any relation to Uzushiokage. He bobbed his head and tucked the file between his arms.

He cleared his throat and all the chatter died down.

“What can all of you take from this match?” All Might surveyed the students. Most of them exchanged furrowed eyebrows and stared at the screen with blank, befuddled eyes. _This is an unintentional lesson but it is still an important lesson._ He probably should have made that lesson number one instead of lesson number 10.

Iida shot his hand up in the air. “That Villains could prepare their traps from the very beginning and so one must always look at the parameters before entering the lair?”

“Correct.”

That was their lesson while his lesson was to plan his lessons better because he should have made them realize that being aware of their surroundings was important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are going to be various flashbacks in this series but not all of them will be Naruto's memories. The flashbacks that do come into this story is to mostly explain certain behaviours of Naruto and how it came long before she joined Team Seven. These flashbacks would also, hopefully, show the difference in the way she had been raised compared to the canon Naruto.
> 
> For anyone that read the two original versions of this series, the difference between this book and the first four books is that it is going to explore more on the kunoichi aspect of the story alongside the issues that Naruto has. There will be more interactions between Naruto and the original characters alongside more world building on aspects that I may have skipped out in the series.
> 
> Please do leave kudos and do leave a comment if you like it.


	8. Chapter 8

_Why aren’t they looking at me?_

This was a question Naruto would ask herself after living in the streets for a full year. This was a question that lingered in her mind as she took in the pedestrians walking through the crowded streets. Not a single one of those people would sneak a glance at her or hand her some ryo in the little mug that she had managed to steal from one of the pedestrians.

The few people who did look at her would give her such freezing, cold eyes before turning their head away from her. It was like those people didn’t want to acknowledge her existence. Sometimes if she was lucky, she would have someone give her money. But those people were rare and few.

She cradled her legs closer to her body and tucked her head on the top of her knees. Her bones screamed with agony as the cold winds stabbed it. _I wish I had a home._ Naruto looked up at the brown cardboard that she called a roof and then looked out to the passing pedestrians. Most of them didn’t glance at her and the whiskered girl rubbed her hands.

_“M-Mommy says that I shouldn’t give you money but I think you need this more then me.”_ Naruto blinked and looked up as a pink-haired girl slid some cash into her mug. She scrunched her eyebrows together and her mind swirled as the green-eyed girl flashed her a little smile before dashing away from her.

The blonde stared at the cash and slid the money into her pocket before crawling out of her tiny box with the stolen mug in one hand. She had to go and ask for money. _I don’t think it is enough money to get food._ She sucked in a deep breath and bit back a hiss as the snow burned through her hands. This wasn’t as bad as the time that the Matron closed the heater on her because she had been a bad girl.

It was a miracle she survived as long as she did.

_“S-Some money! Just a 100 ryo!”_ Naruto pleaded. Her fingers trembled and cried as the icy winds nipped the bones of her finger but she didn’t dare drop her mug. No one stole a glance at her except two people. A person with silver-hair and a strange dog mask, who seemed to be dashing away to some place, and an old lady.

The old lady stopped in her steps and reached her hand down to her thick bag. _She must have a lot of money because I’ve never seen someone with a bag as thick as hers._ Hope began to stir in her stomach and Naruto allowed herself to brighten up. If that pink-haired girl gave her some money then this old lady had to give her a bit more money.

_Not everyone is like the Matron! There are nice people in the village!_ Naruto looked up at the smiling old woman, only to blink when that sweet, warm smile faded away from the old woman’s face. Those gentle, soft features in the woman’s face changed into an expression that reminded her of a monster. No, the old woman was looking at her like how the matron looked at her.

The old lady looked at her like she was a monster.

_Why? Why do they look at me like that?_ She wanted to scream those words out loud but what if the old woman smacked her hard in the face like the matron did whenever she whined and complained? No, it was better for her sake if she kept on smiling like the other children running around the streets. Her cheeks still screamed even when the old woman turned her nose up and walked away from her.

White snow fell even harder onto the ground and Naruto looked up at the white snow with blank eyes and then to the surrounding streets. It should be a winter wonderland. Her heart should flutter and dance but she wanted to curl into a ball and pray to Kami. _But what’s the point? God hasn’t helped me! I **barely** survived last winter but what about this winter? I can’t sleep in the trees again._

She needed more money to get a meal because the rivers were frozen now. Fishes were now swimming underneath the ice, free from her hungry grasp and that meant she had to either steal food, money or plead for money. Money was everything. No money meant that there was no chance for her to get food and if she got caught then she was going to go to jail if what she saw yesterday was an indication.

Jail wasn’t fun or so she heard some of the men whispered to each other.

Hope began to stir inside of her stomach when a nice, _young_ couple walked passed by her.

_“S-Some money! Can I have some money?”_ She grabbed the young woman’s sleeve and fluttered her eyelashes at them. They could give her some coins and that would be good enough for her. Food would be amazing but no one carried food with them and if they did then they wouldn’t give it to her. Money was all she needed.

Adoption would be nice too but no one would adopt her as the Matron and all those couples coming through the orphanage proved to her.

All she needed was some kindness and money for food.

_“We don’t give money to **beggars!** ” _The man snarled, prying his hand away from the woman’s skirt. Naruto let out a tiny cry as she crashed into the ground. Her back screamed and she felt her bones cracked just a little bit. Her lips felt strange and a quick lick of her lips told her that her lips were bleeding from the impact.

She rubbed her lips and stared blankly at the scowling couple. _Why is she still alive?_ Those words floated in the air and Naruto could only furrowed her eyebrows together. Why did they say that? Why couldn’t adults be kind to her? Why did they always drag their children away from her? Was it because she was covered with dirt? Because the rivers were frozen and she didn’t feel like washing in cold water.

_“You’re my little maelstrom, aren’t you Naru-chan?”_

The soft, sweet voice rang in her ears and her heart wept like it always did whenever warm, brown eyes flashed before her eyes. The woman looked almost fuzzy in her memory but something told her that this woman had been kind to her. For some reason whenever the memory came to her mind, she felt like there was a sun being shone down on her.

That someone did love her.

_But no one loves me because I might actually be a monster._ She sniffed and her eyes began to burn up. Monsters deserved to get hurt and if she was a bad person then it was okay for her to hurt them. Naruto balled her hands into a fist and narrowed her eyes at the people passing her by. If they weren’t going to look at her and if they weren’t going to be kind then she should hurt them.

She wanted to treat them in the same way that they treated her.

_“What happened to you, child? What are you doing here in the streets?”_

Naruto looked up and blinked at the sight of a sad, elderly man standing right in front of her. He was a funny looking man, who wore long, white robes that had strange characters. But that wasn’t what caught her attention. What caught her attention was the warmth and sadness colouring his brown eyes.

It was strange for someone to stare at her like that and she couldn’t stop herself from inching away from him. He frowned and flickered his eyes around the streets. She couldn’t help but noticed the fact that the man looked at her with strange eyes. It wasn’t the same eyes as the blurry woman in her memories but it was nothing like the Matron.

Minutes passed and the man did not budge from his spot. His eyes looked almost horrified but why did he look at her like that?

_“Why do you care, Old Man?”_ Her throat itched and Naruto gazed at him with a forced smile on her lips. Her throat burned and tightened as brown eyes flashed with an intense sadness. Why did he look at her like that? Was he going to be kind to her? Was he going to tell her the words that she needed to hear? She wanted someone to say those words to her.

The old man knelt down and cleared his throat. _“Because you are a child of Konoha.”_

Those words weren’t the words she wanted to hear but those words were filled with warmth and kindness. He hadn’t ignored her existence like those adults and he wasn’t giving her one of those cold eyes. He stopped and stared at her with such nice eyes. His eyes filled her with so much warmth, warmth that made her want to bounce around.

She needed more of that warmth.

_“Because you’re a child of my village.”_

She didn’t know how many times that the old man repeated those words to her but she knew after the third repeat that the old man wrapped his arms around her. Residual ashy pungent burned her nostrils and the flames of rage inside of her began to die down. The trembles in her shoulder died down.

It had been so long since someone called her a child. So long since someone didn’t look at her with icy, cold eyes but she wanted someone else. She needed the old lady in her memory but the old lady was gone. The old lady abandoned her and left her with the Matron, who never once called her by her name.

_“Naru-chan, Granny will be upset if Naru-chan follows her.”_

She couldn’t put a name to the voice.

_“Do you want to come with me to get cleaned up? The winters here are going to be cold and I’ll take you to a nice place.”_ The old man pushed himself up and offered a wrinkly, tanned hand to her. His eyes encouraged her to take his hand and Naruto regarded the hand for a good couple of seconds as her whole body trembled just a little bit.

Naruto shuffled her feet back and forth. _“I don’t wanna go back to the Matron or those mean kids! They aren’t very nice to me.”_

The old man’s eyes turned cold and Naruto flinched. She waited for him to scold her but he looked to the trees with thinned lips before looking back at her with warm eyes.

_“I will find you a better home, Naru-chan.”_ The man informed her. _“But before I can find you a better home, we need to get you have a shower, Naru-chan.”_

And that was the day she took the Hokage’s hand and not once did she question how the old man knew her name. _Because it didn’t matter how the Hokage knew her name._ No, it was nice for someone to acknowledge her as a person.

That was the first and last time an adult offered a hand to her until the day she met Sasuke.

* * *

_“How was the second day of school? Did you make any friends?”_

Shouto looked away from his shoes and blinked at the sight of his sister standing behind him. She offered him a hopeful smile and her turquoise eyes gleamed with so much hope. Seconds passed and the smile did not fade away. If anything, his older sister glanced at the empty corridor before looking back at him.

The fact his father was not looming over them and shooting questions about his classmates meant that Endeavor was still at work.

“Fine.”

Fuyumi sighed and lowered her shoulders while Shouto inspected his sister. How should he go about asking his sister about Natsuo? Did he just ask her immediately? Or should he start with small talk? But it would be weird for him to question her when he had never asked about his brother, not when Natsuo rarely looked at him.

“Fuyumi, where is Natsuo?”

His sister’s eyes widened and it was not long before she pinched her shoulder. Shouto grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck. Was he not supposed to word his question in that way? But then again, it was weird that he asked his sister about his older brother. Despite the fact they had three year age gap, they had never been close.

Endeavor never allowed him to get close to Natsuo or Touya when he was a child. Maybe that was why he didn’t know how to talk to Natsuo but it didn’t help that his older brother rarely looked at him with warm eyes.

“Natsuo is finally out on a date from some girl he met in his university.” Fuyumi informed him. Shouto nodded and his older sister flashed him a slight frown. “But why are you asking about Natsuo?”

Shouto slipped on his slippers and walked through the corridor. The air almost crackled with nervous energy and the heterochromatic-haired boy looked over his shoulders. His sister kept glancing over her shoulders as if worried that their father was going to come in and ruined their time. It wouldn’t be the first time the man ruined their time.

If Endeavor knew about his concern for a classmate then he would give him an hour-long rant.

_“You don’t have time for distractions, Shouto! You need to focus on surpassing All Might!”_

Friends were nothing but a distraction in the eyes of his father.

“I want to ask him about what to do with a classmate,” Shouto admitted.

Fuyumi blinked and slacked her jaw before shaking her head. She looked over their shoulders before fixating her eyes on the living room door. The young woman said nothing. She only opened the door with an eagerness that made him knit his eyebrows together. Why was his sister so excited? The last time he saw her this excited was when she managed to go out with her best friend.

He took a seat on the couch and watched as his sister closed the door behind them before scurrying to take a seat beside him. She clasped her hands together and took several deep breaths as if she was trying to calm herself down.

“So is this classmate a girl?” His sister pried.

Shouto blinked and then tilted his head to the side. “How did you know I wanted to ask him about a girl?”

Fuyumi opened and closed her mouth like a fish before she pinched her shoulder. Her turquoise eyes shone with disbelief as if she didn’t believe for one moment that the question was coming out of his mouth. He rubbed the sides of his head. Why was she reacting like that? It was true he did not care about interactions with his classmates but it didn’t deserve a reaction like that.

“Is your classmate pretty?”

His sister’s voice was filled with hesitance and Shouto looked to the windows. The evening sunrays tickled through the window, offering a golden shade to the floor but it wasn’t as bright as Uzumaki’s hair. The skies weren’t as blue as his classmate’s eyes if he considered things carefully. But the little faint smile she had when All Might came in, had been like a breath of fresh air.

It was like a ray of sunlight on a winter’s day.

“She is pretty,” he paused and added. “Really pretty.”

Fuyumi hummed and placed her hand against his forehead. It was cold but not cold enough for him to have the desire to use _that_ side of his body. He blinked and inched away when he noticed the teasing glint in his sister’s eyes. Why was she giving him those kind of eyes? She had never directed that kind of gaze to him.

It was always directed to Natsuo.

“She must be _really_ pretty for you to notice her.” His sister beamed and removed her hand from his forehead. “Or maybe you must be sick.”

Shouto blinked. “I’m fine.”

Fuyumi slumped her shoulders and the heterochromatic-haired boy sighed. What was going through his sister’s mind? Should he have just lied and say Uzumaki wasn’t pretty? But if he looked at it from an objective point of view then Uzumaki Naruto was one of the prettiest girls in their class. Her blue eyes were brighter than the blue skies and her hair was what sunshine would look like if it was a physical item.

But it wasn’t her eyes or hair that caught his attention but the fake smiles and her words that caught his attention.

“So what about her?” Fuyumi leaned her whole body forward and offered him a nervous smile. “If it is about girls then I can help you better than Natsuo. I’m the reason he managed to get his date to notice him.”

_Oh, she thinks I might like Uzumaki in that way._ He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from his sister. There was a burning sensation behind his cheeks and for a brief moment he wondered if he had accidentally activated his father’s Quirk. It felt like it because ice didn’t make his cheeks feel like it was on fire.

He shook his head and cleared his throat. “She reminds me of Mum.”

The teasing glint in his sister’s eyes faded and a frown began to form on his sister’s lips. No words were spoken between them and Shouto looked away from his sister. His heart thundered and raced against his chest like it was on a high way. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat before looking out to the lush green leaves of their trees.

_“I’m okay, Shouto.”_

His mother had never been okay. Even though his memory was hazy, his mother kept flinching whenever her eyes locked onto the left side of his body. Just the sight of his turquoise eye and red hair made his mother flinched. That left side of his body was ugly and just the mere sight of it had been enough to cause pain to his mother.

“I want to help her.”

_“The kind of Dick who doesn’t care about anyone’s problems but their own problems.”_

It had been hours since Uzumaki said those words to him and nothing he did would allow him to forget those words. She looked at him like she knew his type and looked at him like he might be like his father. It rattled him. Was he really a dick like Uzumaki claim he was? Because he didn’t want to be one. He didn’t want to be like his father.

If a stranger could make that conclusion then it stood to reason that he might actually be a dick.

“Shouto, do you still blame yourself for what happened to Mum?”

The heterochromatic-haired boy looked down at his hands and listened to the leaves rustling in the background. He didn’t need to look up to know his sister’s eyes were flashing with concern and he had no desire to tell her anything. Fuyumi would reassure him and tell him that it wasn’t his fault. That there had been other factors for their mother’s breakdown.

But his mother wouldn’t have thrown the boiling water on him if his father’s Quirk never existed.

Everything would have been better if he had been born like Fuyumi and Natsuo.

His sister sighed and looked at him for the longest time before wrapping her arms around him. Physical warmth flooded his system but he couldn’t bring himself to frown or smile. He couldn’t pretend to his sister that a hug could fix their problems. Nothing could fix their problems if he really thought about it.

“If you really want to help her then you should talk to your homeroom teacher about your concern.” Fuyumi suggested. Her eyes flickered to the shelf, where a photo of their oldest brother stood, and then looked back at him. “Your teacher should have a better knowledge of what to do when it comes to your classmate and should know how to approach her. If you do anything then it might scare her off.”

Shouto nodded and took a deep breath. “But how do I get her to see that I’m not like the person that hurt her?”

Fuyumi offered him a smile and looked to the photo of Touya.

  
“You just have to prove to her that you do care about her because actions can speak louder than words.”

* * *

_I’m finally done with hell._

Naruto rubbed her cheeks and dropped her shoulders. The ache on her cheeks was slowly fading away until it was just a numb-sensation. It was a completely stupid idea for her to just keep smiling at her customers. But a cute, ditzy smile here and there would get her so many tips. More tips meant she could get some really good notebooks and maybe she could allow herself to splurge on some of the more expensive groceries.

If only there was such thing as equal prices for everyone.

_Money really does make the world go round._ She sighed and kicked a pebble as she turned into an empty alleyway. One of the customers told her that saying when he found out about her working situation. She couldn’t remember why he brought that up but Naruto would forever recall how her boss hadn’t been amused when she tried to use that excuse on her.

Her boss had puffed her cheeks and folded her arms against her chest before ordering her to take a break.

_“Uzumaki, if you continue to work like this then you will never get a boyfriend.”_

Naruto wrinkled her nose and looked up at the night sky. A boyfriend? That was a waste of time. Why should she waste her precious time and resources on love? She might have lost her first dream but her drive hadn’t faded one bit. She wasn’t going to give in and allow one of the customers to take her out on a date.

No, her time should be directed to making something out of herself.

_Thud._ Naruto blinked as a small, soft body collided against her feet. What happened? Had she been so distracted that she hadn’t heard footsteps in this alleyway? It seemed like it because even though she hadn’t exactly train in these last three years, her hearing was still better than the average human without a sound Kekkei Genkei.

She sighed and shook her head before looking down at the body that collided against her. At first glance, she could see that the body in question was a small girl. The little girl rubbed her white hair and blinked wolfishly before looking up at her with wide red eyes. The horn was a little bit weird but well everything about this country was weird when Naruto thought about it.

She inhaled and knelt down. “Are you okay, kid?”

The girl looked at her with wide eyes and the whiskered teen felt her stomach stirring with unease. She hadn’t done anything and the girl was already quivering like she was scared out of her mind. Something was definitely not right about this image. But what was she missing? She had never met this girl before today.

_“But you don’t need to meet someone to fear them, experience can make you scared.”_ A little voice whispered. Naruto grimaced and inspected the girl. There seemed to be bandages wrapped around the little girl’s arms and legs. No visible bruises decorated her but there was a rusty scent clinging to her.

  
A rusty, metallic scent that could only come from blood.

“Is everything okay, kid?” She kept her tone soft and flickered her eyes around the empty alleyway. In the distance, she could hear the gravel on the road being crunched like there was no tomorrow. Someone was definitely coming here. Not anyone good because this little girl looked ready to bolt away from her.

_No, she wants to run away from the people hurting her._ Naruto licked her lips and looked at the white-haired girl, who eyed her with weariness. What should she do? Should she take the girl? But people might claim that she was kidnapping the girl. She could potentially get into trouble and was she really going to—

_“You have been causing nothing but problems since you came here, you little monster!”_

There was no way she could allow another kid to go through the same hell that she went through.

“Eri, there you are!” A deep voice yelled. Naruto looked away from the trembling white-haired girl and stared at the muscular man jogging their way. She grabbed Eri’s arm and schooled her expression into a blank one as her eyes took in the beak-shaped mask. _There is definitely something fishy about the whole thing._ “You should stop running.”

  
The little girl tensed up and tilted her head up at her. _Help me! I don’t want to go with him!_ That was what those red-eyes told her and the whiskered teen clenched her jaw together. She flickered her eyes around the alleyway. There were no cameras in this alleyway, which meant things could be easy for her.

“Miss, I’m sorry if my daughter bumped into you,” The muscular man said. There was a fake pleasantness in his tone and the man shifted closer to her as he held his hand out to Eri. “Eri-chan, you need to come along.”

Eri didn’t move and only looked down at her feet before looking at her. Naruto’s heart lurched and she took a deep breath as her eyes shifted away from the trembling girl to the man standing before them. This little girl was terrified. This girl was covered in so many bandages and reeked of blood, which meant that this little girl wasn’t a happy child.

Those bandages meant that this child was someone who was going through hell and that she was probably crying herself to sleep every night. That every day was a constant desire to understand what she did to deserve that horrible beating and neglect.

_“You’re a child of Konoha.”_

Those words weren’t the words that she wanted to hear from the Hokage. She wanted the Third Hokage to say something else to her, something that would have made her heart warm again. At that time, she wanted his answer to be different from the answer that he had given her. Something so much more simpler than the words he had given her.

“You must be one shitty Dad.” Her words sliced through the air and Eri looked up at her with wide eyes. Naruto clenched her jaw and offered a warm smile to the little girl before narrowing her eyes at the frozen man. “If you really were her father then this kid wouldn’t be scared out of her wits! She wouldn’t smell of blood! So _tell me what is your relationship with Eri!”_

The words spilled out of her mouth and Naruto winced. That tone sounded so much different from her usual tone. It sounded just like _that tone_ , the same tone she had used on Sakura when she tried to lie to her. Her whole body trembled and the man looked at her with wide eyes. It took exactly five seconds before the words came out of his mouth:

“I’m supposed to watch her so that she doesn’t run away from Overhaul again.” The man clasped his mouth and looked at her with horrified eyes. Eri blinked and tilted her head upwards, gazing at her with wide, curious eyes. Naruto said nothing and only gazed down at the girl. Overhual wasn’t a name that she was familiar with but it didn’t sound like a friendly name. “You have a Quirk similar to Shin! You forced me to give you those answers!”

Naruto furrowed her eyebrows. “Quirk? My Quirk doesn’t make me force people to give me those answers! You _willingly_ gave me that information.”

“I fucking didn’t want to answer your orders.” The man growled. “Don’t play games with me!”

The whiskered teen pinched her nose before darting her eyes to Eri. The little girl still gazed at them with fearful eyes and Naruto closed her eyes. Right now, she shouldn’t argue with the man about whether or not she had that kind of Quirk. _You would think if I have a Kekkei Genkei that allows me to get answers then I would be able to find out who my parents were or get food easily._ She sighed and shook her head.

“So who is Overhaul?” Naruto crocked her head to the side.

The man growled. “I’m not telling you who he is! Now give me the girl and I might consider not killing you.”

“Kill me?” She scoffed and flickered her eyes to Eri. The white-haired girl trembled and looked at her with fearful eyes before moving an inch closer to the man. The whiskered teen shook her head and pulled the girl back. She dropped her shoulders and slid her hands together into a very familiar hand seal.

White smoke enveloped the area and Naruto balled her hands into a fist. _I’m not a true hero but I won’t be able to live with myself if I allowed a child to go through hell._ She needed to protect this child and to get her to a safe place. If that child returned to that Overhaul then she had no doubt that the girl was going to go through another round of hell.

The smoke faded to reveal her clone. Her clone did not smile and gazed at the man with cold eyes before scooping up Eri. The white-haired girl looked at her with confusion and hope. Naruto allowed a tiny smile to grace her lips. A smile should be able to reassure that everything was going to be okay. It should tell her that she was going to be protected by those bad men.

Her clone offered her a grim look before dashing away from the alleyway.

The man gazed at her running clone with wide eyes before shifting his gaze at her. “What the hell are you?”

“A human being,” she replied with a fake smile on her face. “Now what was this about killing me?”

The masked man blinked and then shook his head as if he just recalled the fact that he did threaten to kill her. He couldn’t kill her. Most of the Quirks in this part of the world was weaker than her abilities. Just the shadow clone jutsu by itself, should be enough to overwhealm people and the combination of the substitution jutsu would be enough to confuddle people.

She hummed and balled her hands into a fist when the man shot a fireball from his mouth. It was large, larger than her whole body but it was not large enough for her not to avoid it. She jumped up as the fireball speeded up towards her like a speeding bullet. She landed on her feet as the flames burned against the walls of the alleyway.

“What the hell is her Quirk?” The man growled. He shot another ball of flames towards her. Its bright red flames danced its way towards her and the whiskered teen ducked. _So he can only make flames? And not really powerful ones._ She grimaced and took a deep breath before glancing at the alleyway around her.

_I can kill him but do I really want to have my first kill?_ She shifted to the left as another ball of flames flew straight towards her. No, there was no way that she would ruin her soul now. This man shouldn’t be her target but she had to make him pay for allowing a child to get hurt. He allowed and enabled a child to be abused by this Overhaul.

This was why adults should never be trusted because they never did the right thing for children. They enabled for abuse to continue on for a year, not caring when a child cried out for help.

“I thought you would have an awesome Quirk but it seems like you have got a boring one.” The man paled and the whiskered teen balled her hand into a fist. She dashed straight towards the man and smashed her fist against his cheeks. Bones cracked underneath her knuckles and it was not long before wind blew against her cheeks as the man flew straight towards the alleyway’s walls.

Slabs of concrete cracked before breaking into large chunks. Naruto watched with blank eyes as the slabs of concrete drilled into the man’s body. A rather large, sharp concrete pierced through the man’s abdomen and the whiskered teen almost flinched as the man screamed. _I should call the ambulance or he might just die._ She paused and stared at the man.

Blood leaked out of him like a river and the whiskered teen pulled out her phone.

_“No one will help you, Monster! You think crying out for help will get you anything!”_

Her throat tightened and the whiskered teen clenched her jaw. Why should she call the ambulance? Why should she let that man heal? It might be the right thing to do. The heroic thing as people would tell her but she wasn’t a saint. She wasn’t a hero and there was no telling if that man wouldn’t try and get Eri-chan from her.

_People like him deserved to die._

If a man allowed a child to get harm then he was no better than a monster.

So she pocketed her phone into her pants and walked away, ignoring the cries and scream of the bleeding man. Her ears rang and her heart thundered against her chest but she didn’t bother to look at him. Even if he cried out like a man in pain, she was going to allow him to bleed to death. _It will be a long time before someone finds out that there is a man, who somehow got pierced through his stomach._ With the lack of cameras, she had an alibi.

She was safe from any accusation.

Naruto slid her hands into her skirt pocket and continued to wander until she finally reached the playground that was near her work-place. She stopped in her tracks and relaxed her shoulders when she saw her clone playing tick-tack-toe with Eri. Her lips curled into a slightly wider smile when her clone fumbled, allowing the little girl to win.

She cleared her throat and the little girl blinked at the sight of her. Her clone slumped shoulders and flashed her a smile before popping itself out of existence. Naruto dragged her feet towards the little girl. She looked around the playground, noting the distinct lack of people, before kneeling down till she was at eye-level with Eri.

“You’re safe now, Eri-chan.” Naruto offered her a smile and held out her hand to the little girl. “That bad man isn’t going to hurt you anymore and I promise to take care of ya.”

The little girl looked at her with wide eyes. She gazed at her like she was a hero or someone that came out of the movies. It was strange but not in a bad way. No one looked at her like how this little girl looked at her. But the look of worship faded and the white-haired girl looked to her stretched hand before darting her eyes to the ground.

“W-Why did you help me?” Eri whispered.

Naruto’s throat tightened.

' _Why do you care, Old Man?"_

" _Because you are a child of Konoha."_

Those weren’t the words that she wanted to hear from the Third Hokage. Those weren’t the words that a child like Eri or her had wanted to hear, not when it didn’t relieved the scars and wounds inside of them. _I remember now what I wanted the Old Man to tell me._ Her throat burned and the whiskered teen wrapped her arms around the little girl.

“Because you deserved to be protected and to be treated with kindness,” she informed her. “Because you are someone that didn’t deserve to go through all that. You are a little girl that deserves to know people do care about you and that people can be kind.”

Those were the words that she wished the Hokage told her.

Eri gazed at her and hugged her back. The little girl trembled but didn’t cry at her words. That was expected. It might be overwhelming for the girl to realize that she was now safe from one of the bad men that hurt her. It would be days, maybe even weeks before this little girl would realize that she was never going to go back to hell.

_But I’m going to make sure that she lives her life to her fullest._ Naruto nodded. She should probably take the child to the police station and inform the authority about Overhaul but the police would probably send her to an orphanage. They wouldn’t take her words seriously and they wouldn’t care about the fact that this was a girl who had been abused by her guardian.

  
They would never understand of the hell Eri went through and they would never recognized that being alive could be hell.

_I’m going to give her the life that I wish the Hokage gave me._

She was going to take care of this little girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there have been some minor and a few large changes in this chapter compared to the original version. The reason that I had Naru rescue Eri wasn't just because I think Eri should have been rescued earlier but to also show of how much Naru has been affected by her childhood.
> 
> People might be wondering if Naru has a Quirk, well it will be explored throughout the story and that is one of the few main differences between the original version and this version. The other main difference is that I decided to go along with what had been written in the manga on Dabi instead of what I had written in my account in FFnet. That is one of the many reason for the slight variation in the story.
> 
> Do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

_“This is going to be your new home, Naru-chan.”_

Naruto stared at the apartment. There was nothing in the apartment except for a couch and a television screen alongside a coffee table. There was a bare balcony standing outside the window but it wasn’t completely bad. Her nose twitched but that might be because of the dust lying around on the floor. She probably had to clean the floor but other then that it was perfect.

Well _mostly_ perfect.

_“I wish I can give you a better apartment, Naru-chan but this was the best apartment I can find in such a short period of time.”_

She tore her eyes away from the peeling wallpaper and fixed her gaze on the Hokage. His eyes shone with sadness as if he truly did not wish for her to have this apartment. The old man was being silly about being sad for her. Her new apartment was bad but it wasn’t the worst place that she had ever slept in. Her box had been smaller and felt a lot less warm in that apartment.

  
But the apartment wasn’t as nice as the Hokage son’s house.

In the week that she lived in his son’s house, her feet never touched the ground. Hibiki-ojisan would pick her up in his arms and began to swing her around like she weighted like a piece of feather. His wife would always comb her hair and offer her warm smiles while Konohamaru would tug on her hair like it was a toy.

For the first time in her life, her heart fluttered with an unfamiliar emotion whenever she was around them.

_“C-Can’t I stay with Hibiki-ojisan and his family?”_ Naruto shuffled back and forth before darting her eyes down to the floors. “ _Can’t I stay with you? I don’t wanna be alone.”_

The Third Hokage lowered his hat but did not answer her question. She shuffled closer to the man, lowering her head and turning it around until her blue eyes took notice of the old man’s eyes. Pain leaked out of his eyes and not for the first time, she winced. _I don’t wanna live by myself but I don’t want to hurt him._ She looked away from the old man.

Even if this apartment lacked the warmth and laughter that Hibiki-ojisan’s house contained, this was still _her apartment_. It was _her_ home. No one could take this away from her. The Matron couldn’t snatch it away from her by saying that she was a bad seed or anything like that. This was now a place that she could store things.

_“Naru-chan, there are **certain** people out there that will be upset if Hibiki or me adopt you.”_ The Third Hokage explained. His eyes hardened despite the softness and regret in his tone. _“Besides you are old enough to take care of yourself, aren’t you Naru-chan?”_

_But I don’t wanna take care of myself! I don’t wanna be alone!_ Her eyes burned and her throat tightened but the whiskered girl made no comment. She only forced herself to smile at the old man before gazing out at the window. Why should the Old Man care about what people wanted? What about her own needs? What about her own feelings? Her feelings should matter more than what a bunch of people desire.

But he wasn’t making her go back to the orphanage and that was a win for her.

_“Of course I can take care of myself!”_ She declared with a bright smile playing on her lips. The old man stared at her for the longest time. His brown eyes still had that warmth but there was something else about his eyes that seemed different. It was the same subtle coldness that the Matron had directed at her. The same coldness that most of those villagers gave her whenever they caught sight of her whisker marks.

_If you don’t like me then you don’t have to lie to me._ She tightened her smile and tried not to balled her hands into a fist. It was fine he didn’t like her because no one seemed to like her. The only difference between this old man and the Matron was the fact that he was kind to her. He didn’t smack her whenever she looked at him. He didn’t avoid calling her by her name and that was good enough for her.

Those cold eyes didn’t bring out a shudder like the Matron because at least the Hokage could call her by her name.

If he could pretend to like her then she could pretend for a moment that he loves her. As long as he treated her like she was a person and the fact he allowed her to live with his son despite the fact that she was a monster meant that maybe he could learn to love her. That maybe he could care for her and that maybe if she was persistent then he could change his stance about her living with Hibiki and his family.

_(But no matter how hard she tried to be good, the Hokage would never budge on his opinion about letting her have a normal family life and years later, she would be forced to acknowledge that what the old man had done to her had left her with emotional wounds that couldn’t be hidden anymore)._

_“I’ll give you money, Naru-chan and you can use that money to buy whatever you want.”_ The Third Hokage tilted his hat down and stared at her for the longest time. The coldness in his eyes faded and his brown eyes once again radiated with some warmth. _“But you shouldn’t spend all of your money in one go, Naru-chan.”_

Naruto nodded and shuffled back and forth before looking down at her hands. “ _Are you going to come and visit me?”_

_“Every Friday, I’ll come and give you your weekly allowance.”_ The Third Hokage replied with a reassuring smile.

_Can’t you come every day?_ The words were on the tip of her tongue but Naruto swallowed it down. She only tightened her smile and watched as the old man shuffled his way out of her apartment. The moment the old man closed the door, was the moment she slid down to the floor and gazed at her empty balcony.

**_“Are those orange tulips for me?”_ **

Warm brown eyes flashed before her eyes and Naruto reached her hand out to the balcony. There might not be any plants or flowers on the balcony but there was a flower store near her house. Maybe they had some orange tulips that she could water and grow in the balcony. With those vibrant orange flowers, this cold apartment might just feel a little bit more warm.

**_“My little Maelstorm is a painter, isn’t she?”_ **

That sweet, loving voice echoed in her ears and Naruto closed her eyes as her head began to throb. The voice and eyes were so familiar to her but she couldn’t remember the person behind the voice and eyes. _Why do people leave me when I need them? Why doesn’t anyone care about my own feelings anymore? Am I really a bad girl?_ She sniffed and smacked her cheeks before gazing at those peeling walls.

It didn’t matter anyway because she was going to prove people wrong and she was going to make this apartment feel less cold until the Hokage decided to let her live with his son and his family.

* * *

Naruto inhaled and darted her eyes to her ajar bedroom door. From the smallest gap, she could see that Eri was still sleeping like there was no tomorrow. The little girl clung to her pillow like it was the one thing that protected her from the bad people around them. _She really has gone through hell._ Her heart tightened and the whiskered teen allowed a shaky breath to escape her mouth.

This was the first time since she rescued Eri that the girl hadn’t tried to follow her. The offer of her own bedroom hadn’t been enough to make Eri-chan leave her alone. No, the little girl had looked a little bit dejected when she made the offer and she couldn’t bring herself to push the girl into sleeping in the other room.

_“My name is Sarutobi Hibiki but you can call me, Hibiki-ojisan!”_

Her eyes burned once again and Naruto reached her hand up to the cupboard door as a cheerful voice echoed in her ear. The cupboard’s door swung opened with a bang and the whiskered teen pulled out the eggs alongside the other various ingredients needed to make breakfast. _Does Eri-chan even like eggs? And what about lunch?_ She paused and glanced at her schoolbag that laid against the couch.

No, lunch wasn’t the main issue at this point.

In a couple of hours, school was going to begin and the law stated that she had to go to school even if the topics weren’t that complicated. _I can try and transform Eri-chan but people will notice if there was an unfamiliar person in the classroom._ She rubbed the back of her neck and pulled her bottom lip back. Aizawa-sensei would question her if she brought Eri-chan with her.

He might take Eri-chan away from her and put her in some orphanage.

_“You can just tell him about the abuse that Eri-chan endured and maybe he will protect her from those bad men.”_ A childish voice inside of her whispered. Naruto paused and looked down at her feet. If she told him about Overhaul then would he believe her? Would he even try and protect Eri-chan? Or would he ignore her pleas and just send her to an empty apartment? To an orphanage? She couldn’t tell the answer.

But she could try and take the…

_“If you tell him then he is going to wonder why you allowed a man to die!”_ A darker voice hissed in her other ear. _“You tell him and he will call you a monster like the Matron did! You tell him and Eri-chan would go through the same hell that you went through in that apartment! Do you really want Eri-chan to be alone like we were? You want her to feel like you abandoned her?”_

Naruto shook her head and dropped her shoulders. No, this was the last thing she wanted to do to Eri-chan. _If I give her to Aizawa-sensei then there is a chance that he would just lie to me and send her to an orphanage, where she could be attacked again! Heroes always seemed to go for the flashier crimes._ She tightened her jaw and released a shaky breath.

Until she could find out more about this Overhaul, Eri-chan was going to live with her. She was going to protect this little girl and give her the childhood that she deserved. A childhood filled with love, laughter and most of all… _kindness_. _Once I deal with Overhaul and make him pay for his abuse then I’ll tell the teachers about her._ She nodded and cracked her knuckles before sliding her fingers into a familiar hand seal.

_Pop._

White smoke enveloped the area, filling her vision until only white smoke could be made out in her field of vision. _It is one thing for me to take care of myself but taking care of a little girl is a whole different ballgame._ Naruto trembled and then shook her head. She could do the whole parenting thing until her clones could get more information on Overhaul.

Once Overhaul was dealt with then she could think of what to do with Eri-chan.

She watched with blank eyes as her clones transformed themselves into various people. A few of her clones flashed her a happy-go-lucky smile before dashing out of the apartment door, no doubt bursting with the desire to find more part-time jobs for her. She glanced at the other clones, who were hurdled together as they tried to form a plan on how to get information on Overhaul.

A little whimper pierced through the air.

Naruto tore her eyes away from the hurdled clones and dragged her feet towards her guest bedroom door. _What am I going to do about Eri-chan? How am I going to explain my clones to her?_ She quivered and shook her head. If she allowed herself to stay at home with Eri-chan and send her clone then Eri-chan was going to get the wrong idea about her.

_I don’t want her to think that if I leave a clone with her then that means I don’t care about her._ She took a deep breath and shuffled closer to her bed. Kids were sensitive and someone like Eri-chan was probably more sensitive than the average kid. Every action she decided from now on was going to be analyzed and nitpicked by the girl.

_“Naru-chan, there are **certain** people out there that will be upset if Hibiki or me adopt you.”_

Cold brown eyes burned through her vision and the whiskered teen smacked her cheek. _Get over it! The old man is dead and I did a good job of raising myself! I’m a stronger person because of the Hokage’s decision! How many 15-year-olds can claim that they know how to budget! I am the most self-sufficient person in my year!_ But no matter how many times she chanted those words to herself, her heart still wept like a baby.

“Y-You are still here!”

Naruto blinked and looked down at the bluish off white-haired girl, who was now pushing herself off the bed. The little girl quivered but there was a hint of wonder in her voice like she had never expected for her to stick around. _But once I make a promise, I stick to it._ She allowed her lips to quirk into a smile and the whiskered teen allowed her voice to soften just a little bit.

  
“Course I’m still here, Eri-chan!” She dropped her hand on top of Eri’s head and hummed. “I promised you that I’m going to take good care of you, didn’t I? And Uzumaki Naruto is a girl of her word!”

Eri just stared up at her with wide red-eyes. “Y-You are really going to take care of me?”

“Yup!” Naruto flashed her a smile and locked her gaze on her. “I’m never letting you go back to those horrible people ever again!”

The little girl trembled and trembled before throwing her arms around her. Those tiny hands could barely wrap around her waist but it spoke volumes of how happy she was to hear those words from her. She felt her throat tightening again when Eri began to sob against her school blouse and all the blonde could do was rub the girl’s back.

“N-None of the heroes tried to save Eri-chan when Eri-chan ran,” Eri hiccupped. “They always believed those mean men over Eri-chan! They always encouraged Eri-chan to go back to them. They always believed them whenever they claimed to be Eri-chan’s Daddy! Why didn’t the heroes think of Eri-chan’s safety?”

The whiskered teen hummed and patted her back before gazing out at the window. _Because no one cares about a child’s feelings when it come to matters that concern their safety._ The words tasted bitter in her tongue but she didn’t allow herself to spill those thoughts to Eri-chan. The little girl was still innocent and there was always a possibility that the girl could regain faith when it comes to people.

“That isn’t true,” Naruto declared with a slight smile. The little girl blinked and the whiskered teen tapped her finger against Eri’s nose before widening her smile just a little bit. “I’m going to become a hero, Eri-chan and I promise you that your safety will always be my number one priority. Your safety matters more than some silly adult.”

Eri sniffed. “Aren’t you an adult?”

“I’m not that old!” Naruto puffed her cheeks and the white-haired girl let out a little giggle before rubbing her eyes together. She curled her lips into a tiny smile and combed through Eri’s hair before rubbing the little girl’s back. “And your Nee-chan can be very childish so don’t let my height fool ya! I’m just as childish as you.”

The white-haired girl blinked. “Nee-chan?”

“Well I’m not old enough to be your Mom so I should be called Naruto-neechan,” Naruto explained with a soft tone. She allowed the smile to fade away and the whiskered teen darted her eyes to her clones before looking back at the wide-eyed girl. “I know we aren’t blood related but we are going to be each other’s family because families take care of each other. _I’m going to give you all the happiness and love that you deserve.”_

And for the first time since Eri-chan woke up, the little girl flashed her a smile that filled her whole body with warmth.

“Eri-chan would like that, Naruto-neechan.”

The blonde smiled.

_I can do a good job of raising her._

She took care of herself for nearly eleven years now, taking care of a little kid was going to be a piece of cake.

* * *

“Uzumaki Naruto!”

Aizawa paused and furrowed his eyebrows together at the lack of answer. That was definitely odd. His blond-haired student was the type of person that would come into class on time. In the past few days since school started, it had never escaped his notice that the blonde did have a habit of being one of the first people in the classroom.

  
Did something happen—

“I’m here, Aizawa-sensei! I just missed the train!”

The door smacked open with a bang and Aizawa forced himself to relax as his blond-haired student strolled into the room. He inspected the panting girl and thinned his lips. He could definitely see a stain on her blazer as if someone had sobbed on her shoulder, which was rather odd when he considered the fact that his student was basically alone in that empty apartment.

_If her landlord didn’t inform me about the fact that Uzumaki didn’t have friends then I would presume she brought some middle-school friends with her._ He grimaced and darted his eyes to his students. They needed to fix that aspect of his student because while it was a good thing she didn’t partake with risky behavior, it was still alarming to see that the girl wasn’t connecting with any of her classmates.

“Go to your seat, Uzumaki.” The blonde blinked and dragged her feet towards her empty seat. _If she does this again then we will need to have a talk about her sleep schedule._ He tapped his finger against the podium and bit back the groan that threaten to come out of his lips. There were so many thing that they needed to discuss from the idea of her going to therapy to the request that she cut down her work schedule.

He shook his head and tightened his grip on the podium before scanning the room. Most of the students kept looking at him with excited eyes but there was one student’s reaction that stirred his stomach with curiosity. Todoroki kept sneaking glances at Uzumaki like he was trying to figure something out about the girl or rather it was more appropriate to describe his gaze as concern.

_It has barely been two days and he already noticed that something isn’t right with Uzumaki?_

  
That was rather remarkable if you asked him.

“First of all, I want to start by saying that all of you had done a good job on the battle simulation.” Aizawa began. His students puffed their chests and brightened up at his words, looking at him as if they won the lottery. He sighed and shifted his gaze to Bakugou. “Bakugou, it is clear that you are talented but you can’t act like a child when you lose.”

Bakugou grunted and the Underground Hero didn’t miss the way that Bakugou snuck a glance at Uzumaki. His vermillion eyes flashed with slight annoyance and the whiskered teen looked unfazed, only offering an innocent smile to the boy. _Is there something that I missed?_ He flickered his eyes to Midoriya and the green-haired teen only shook his head at them.

“And Midoriya!” The green-haired boy straightened his back and tilted his head down. Those pale cheeks pinkened even more when several of the students shot looks of pity to the male. “I saw in the video that you decided to settle things by breaking your arm again. I don’t want to hear you say that you can’t help it because you can’t control your Quirk. You can’t keep using that excuse.”

Aizawa kept his expression blank when the boy bobbed his head.

“Uzumaki.” The blonde blinked and straightened her back when he fixed his gaze on her. “You did an impressive job of coordinating your team’s Quirk and being the first team to think outside of the box.”

The whiskered teen stared at him like she didn’t know what to think of the praise coming out of his lips. She just parted her lips before shaking her head and looking away from him while the other students made a murmur of agreement. _That child must not have had a lot of praise while growing up if that was her reaction._ His stomach lurched with unease and the black-haired man exhaled.

He would have a talk with Uzumaki about her problems.

_I just need to think of a very delicate way of broaching this with her._ Aizawa rubbed the back of his neck and placed his file between his arms before making his way towards the door. From behind him, he could hear one chair being shuffled back and the homeroom teacher turned his head around to find the source of that sound.

  
His eyes widened when he saw Todoroki making his way towards him with determination seeping through his eyes like a slowly-burning flame.

“Sensei.”

He turned his whole body around and stared at Todoroki. “Yes, Todoroki?”

“Can I talk to you in private? I have some concerns when it comes to Uzumaki.” His student whispered with a hardened tone. Aizawa blinked and raised an eyebrow when the male snuck a glance at the smiling blond-haired girl. _Can he see through that fake smile?_ The school year had barely started and this teenager could already notice something like that?

He allowed a sigh to escape his lips and gestured for the boy to follow him. If they were going to discuss about Uzumaki and Todoroki’s concerns then there was no way that he could allow them to have this discussion when his students could overhear such delicate topics. _A topic like Uzumaki isn’t a topic that most teenagers know how to talk about with how shelter they can be._ Issues like the one that Uzumkai had were issues that could pose a threat on another person.

Nothing could be heard throughout the corridor except for the sound of their footsteps. Their footsteps echoed like a never-ending beat and he only slowed down when they passed Present Mic. The blond-haired man frowned and Aizawa shook his head at his high-school friend. There was no time for him to explain things to his friend.

Present Mic sighed and simply scurried to his class.

The moment that the two of them reached the corridor furthest away from Class 1A was the moment that Aizawa stopped in his tracks. He clicked his heels together and twisted his whole body towards his heterochromatic-haired student. The 15-year-old boy halted but did not break out of his stoic expression, only relaxing his shoulder by the smallest millimeter.

“What is your concern about Uzumaki, Todoroki?”

The heterochromatic-haired boy straightened his back and looked at him with serious eyes. “I think that Uzumaki might be a child of abuse, Sensei and I think she needs help.”

“Help?” He quirked his eyebrow at his student. Oh the blond-haired girl needed a lot of help but it would be interesting to hear what had given the boy that impression. _I didn’t think that he would care when he seems to be a very driven young man._ Even now, he could still recall how the heterochromatic-haired boy had been so focused during his recommendation exam.

Todoroki bobbed his head and looked at him with thoughtful eyes. “She doesn’t really trust anyone and she act like everything is fine when it is clear that she isn’t really fine. It is like she doesn’t believe that people care about her.”

_The fact that her guardian left her alone when she was just thirteen can make anyone feel like that and if you considered how young she was when she lost her parents, well it is a miracle that she wants to be a hero._ He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck before looking back at the determined eyes of his young student. Those heterochromatic eyes pleaded for him to help Uzumaki.

“I already have plans to help her when it comes to dealing with her trauma and abuse,” Aizawa informed him. “But a topic like abuse isn’t a topic that can be broached easily, Todoroki and someone like Uzumaki would never be willing to acknowledge that they went through something traumatic until they are willing to acknowledge it.”

Todoroki nodded and looked out at the window.

“But it is hard to ignore the trauma.”

Aizawa shook his head.

“There are some people in this world that has a natural gift when it comes to ignoring their own problems.”

It was just unfortunate for him that it seemed like Uzumaki fell into the second category.

* * *

_The fact that Eri-chan hasn’t called me means that she is happy with my clone._

Naruto relaxed her head against the table and let out a shaky breath. For the past couple of hours, she had been waiting for the inevitable phone call from Eri-chan about how much she disliked her clones. _I mean I know my clones are me but there are people out there that wouldn’t see it in the same way._ She exhaled and tapped her pen against the table as Todoroki shuffled his chair closer to her.

She blinked and jerked her head up. “Todoroki, what are you doing?”

“You are my partner for the Art History project,” Todoroki explained. The whiskered teen blinked and frowned before scanning the whole classroom. It seemed like everyone else had been placed in pairs and judging by the placement of the groups, it seemed like their female teacher had decided to pair everyone by their seating order.

The whiskered-teen bobbed her head and let out a grimace. “I didn’t even notice that Midnight-sensei had started the class.”

“I noticed.” She scowled and narrowed her eyes at the heterochromatic-haired boy pulled out his cellphone. He blinked and blinked before tilting his head to the side. “What? If you asked why I was sitting beside you then it is obvious that you have something else on your mind.”

There was nothing about his tone that indicated that he was mocking her for being distracted. Nothing about his stoic eyes that held any hints of him being annoyed over the fact that she got distracted. His eyes held only the slightest hint of curiosity as if he wanted to know what was going through her mind. He just stared at her like he truly did not mind the fact she got distracted.

“It sounded like you were frustrated.” Naruto explained with a curt tone.

Todoroki paused. “People are allowed to get distracted.”

“That is a very diplomatic way of saying that you are annoyed that I wasn’t paying attention in class.” The boy did not flinch at her comment nor did he redden at her words with embarrassment. He only inspected at her for the longest time as if he was trying to figure her out. No, as if he wanted to pry open her brain and dig out every piece of information coming out of her brain.

The blonde gulped and shook her head before turning her body away towards her bag. _I shouldn’t have been that blunt with him._ She needed to be more careful with her words because now it was just her saying this, but it might escalate to her saying that he was a dick again. The whiskered teen exhaled and shook her head.

“It is a pain in the ass but you aren’t the type to get easily distracted in class.”

Those words hovered between them and the whiskered teen twisted her head around to meet Todoroki’s gaze. His heterochromatic eyes burned with confidence and despite the lack of smile or smirk on his lips, her classmate looked almost pleased with his assessment. _For a guy that is stoic, he seems to have his subtle way of showing his emotions._ She forced herself to relax her shoulder.

“And what makes you think I don’t get easily distracted?” Naruto forced herself to quirk her lips into a smile and leaned her whole body forward. The younger boy didn’t flinch from the sudden closeness but he did emit a barely audible gulp before quickly schooling his expression into a blank one. “For all you know, I might be a blond bimbo that only cares about having fun.”

Todoroki stared at her. “Are you?”

Naruto blinked and gazed at her classmate for the longest time as those heterochromatic eyes observed her. She felt her mind buzzing with confusion as the male bored his eyes right into her own eyes. Why did he ask her? Why didn’t he just answer yes? Or now? It made absolutely no sense. Boys like Todoroki seemed to think that they had the right idea about her.

“If I was a blond bimbo then I wouldn’t have gotten into Yuuei High and I wouldn’t know how to handle Bakugou because a bimbo would have a hard time understanding him.” Naruto picked up her pen from her bag as her classmate inspected her. His eyes showed no judgment or disbelief and for a brief moment, she felt more words ready to come out of her mouth but she swallowed it down. “So that answers your question.”

Her classmate bobbed his head. “You and Bakugou come from the same Middle School?”

“Bakugou, Midoriya and me.” She flickered her eyes to the board and scribbled down the topic that Midnight-Sensei had assigned them. _I’ll have my clone look up into this topic while I take Eri-chan out for some shopping._ Her stomach curled with displeasure and the blonde chewed on her bottom lip. Dear god, how was she going to pick some clothes for Eri-chan.

The heterochromatic-haired boy frowned. “The three of you don’t seem close.”

“I work every single day so I don’t have time to make friends.” Naruto replied with a tight smile. The frown on her classmate’s face deepened and she balled her hands into a fist. There was something about that frown that made her want to shuffle her feet back and forth like a guilty little girl. Not that she was guilty because there was nothing wrong with what she had said. “And Bakugou and Midoriya had some weird falling out.”

Todoroki nodded and darted his eyes down at her notes. “That explains his temper tantrum.”

“I told him before he left that he needed to keep a calm head and not hurt Midoriya but he _never_ listens to anyone.” She shook her head and looked down at her notes as her classmate scribbled down something into the notes. Her nose twitched as a heavenly scent filled her nose. It smelled like an excellent blend of mint and citrus, which was a scent that shouldn’t smell wonderful but it did.

Her classmate cleared his throat. “Are you going to continue to sniff me?”

“You should blame yourself for picking a wonderful shampoo because I never thought that mint and citrus could work together.” She blinked and looked away from him with a scowl playing on her lips. Her stupid brain had to spill those words to him! Now her classmate was going to have the wrong idea of her because she decided to make that comment.

The heterochromatic-haired boy blinked. “Thank you?”

“I’m sleep-deprived so you can ignore that stupid comment because that doesn’t mean anything.” Naruto barked with flushed cheeks. Her classmate looked almost stumped but made no comment to change her mind. Instead his eyes seemed fixed on her hair before moving down to her eyes and then finally landing on the whisker marks on her cheeks.

Her hand reached out to touch her cheeks and the whiskered teen shook her head. Why was she going to touch her cheeks? Just because her classmate gawk at her, did not mean that she should be self-conscious when it came to her own appearance. She wasn’t a kunoichi anymore. There was no need for her to be that self-conscious about her appearance anymore.

There was no longer a job that required her to be constantly worried about whether or not she fit the stereotypical idea of beauty and femineity.

“We need to decide where we are doing our project.” Todoroki declared, clearing his throat. He inched away from her and diverted his gaze away from her while she looked back down at her notebook. It was a good thing her classmate hadn’t made any comment about her touching her cheeks or how her whisker marks made her look like a fox.

She flickered her eyes at him. “My apartment is fine unless you want to do the project in your home.”

“No.” His tone was sharp and the whiskered teen frowned. She regarded him for the longest time as irritation filled her system. _What is wrong with us doing our work in his home? We aren’t doing anything wrong._ The words were on the tip of her tongue but the tremble in his shoulders told her that there was a whole different story.

That it was definitely more complicated then the bullshit stories that Shikamaru and the other boys had given whenever she wanted to go over to their house to play.

“I’m not free today because I’ve to take my little sister shopping,” Naruto declared with a quiet sigh as she scribbled down the address to her apartment. “And I’ve to go back to work tomorrow so you can come to my apartment after-tomorrow and if you think that we need to spend some more time on it then you should tell your folks that you are having a sleepover.”

He blinked. “Uzumaki?”

“We need to get the project over and done with before the due date,” she replied with a brisk tone. “And judging from your tone, it seems like you don’t want to go home so I’m giving you an excuse for you to spend a night that isn’t in your home. By the way, you shouldn’t correct your parents if they ask you if I’m a boy because people always have the weirdest idea whenever a girl and boy sleep in the same apartment.”

Todoroki blinked and regarded her for the longest time before finally asking her. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because I was being a bitch when I called you a dick and this is my way of saying that I’m sorry for thinking the worst of you.”

_Besides, I know what it is like when you hate going back home to a place that doesn’t really feel like home._

But for her to say those words to him would mean that she was trusting him with an aspect of her personal life and she couldn’t just allow a stranger to know her personal life story. No, the least she could do for Todoroki was to provide him with an excuse for why he couldn’t come back home to his family.

She was only doing this to apologize to him and not because her stomach churned with unease about allowing her classmate to go back to his place of hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there has been some major changes when it comes to the part between Todoroki and Naruto compared to the original chapter 9 due to the fact that I wanted to show some friendly interaction between them. We also found out in this chapter that Naruto spent some time with Konohamaru and his Dad before the Third Hokage had given Naruto her apartment. I also decided to have Eri staying with Naruto a little bit longer so that you can see a bit more of their bond being developed, hence the difference between this chapter and the chapter up in FFnet.
> 
> Please do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter and what you thought about the interactions between Todoroki and Naruto. The next chapter should have more interaction between Eri and Naruto alongside another character. 
> 
> Can anyone guess who might be the character that Naruto and Eri might run into?


	10. Chapter 10

_“Eri-chan, do you want to pick out an outfit?”_

Naruto darted her eyes at the rows and rows of clothes dangling from the racks before flickering her eyes to Eri. The little girl chewed on her bottom lip and glanced at the rows of pretty dresses standing right in front of her. There were a whole rang of dresses from a pleated pink dress to a frilly orange dress standing right in the corner of her eyes.

Eri shuffled back and forth in her spot before finally asking. “Eri-chan can choose anything?”

“Yup!” Naruto smiled and gestured to the dresses that were on display. “If there is a dress or a piece of clothing that interest Eri-chan then I’ll buy it for you!”

The little girl blinked and glanced at the clothes before flashing her a nervous, little smile. Her smile threatened to drop at that gesture but she held herself back, choosing instead to offer an encouraging smile to the child. There was no way in hell that she was going to show this little girl that her actions affected her. No way in hell was she going to allow that bubble of rage inside of her to explode.

The moment she got Overhaul’s location was the moment that she was going to allow the volcano of rage to explode, because the bastard deserved to pay for what he had done to the little girl.

She blinked and jolted when a pair of small hands tugged on her hand. A quick glance told her that it was Eri-chan pulling her towards one of the clothing racks with the flower-pattern dresses. She relaxed her shoulders and bit back a laugh as the little girl dragged her to the racks with a bounce in her steps.

The sight brought a little flutter to her stomach.

“Eri-chan wants this!” Eri declared, pulling out a sunflower dress from the rack. Naruto blinked and chuckled before pulling out the dress from the rack. _It seems a little bit too big for Eri-chan._ She poked her tongue against her cheek and placed it against the girl’s body, noting how the dress gazed passed the girl’s ankle. Was that supposed to be the design? Kid’s clothing weren’t her speciality.

Naruto tucked the dress into the rack and pulled out a slightly smaller version of dress. She inspected the dress, placed it against Eri’s shoulders before handing the little girl back the dress. This should be the right size but this was her best estimation. _I wish that this place didn’t use age-range as an indicator of size._ Eri-chan was smaller than most kids that she knew and it was expected that she was tiny.

If her previous caretaker was anything like the Matron then the little girl probably was malnourished.

“Eri-chan, I want you to try this on and tell me if you think that it is too big,” Naruto whispered. The little girl bobbed her head and snatched the dress with an eagerness that reminded her of Konohamaru. The younger boy had always been eager whenever it came to presents, never letting himself bask at the presence of gifts before ripping apart the wrappers like a rabbit dog.

She ignored the tightening sensation in her chest and stared at Eri. Her young charge looked almost at loss and seemed almost concern, which was not something that should happen. Her charge was going to smile like there was no tomorrow. She was going to laugh like she meant it and Eri was going to make friends.

She was going to make sure that Eri made _genuine_ friends.

_“Naruto, I didn’t mean to say that! You **forced** me to say those words!”_

Maybe she did force Sakura to speak the truth but it was a ridiculous idea. _How can I force someone to spill the truth by saying a word?_ If she didn’t know from the Hokage that her parents came from Konoha then she would have presume that there was a possibility of her having a Quirk. That the ability was a Kekkei Genkei but her parents had been shinobi.

They hadn’t come from a clan like the Uchiha clan or the Hyuga clan but normal families or so she liked to believe.

The whiskered teen shook her head and leaned against the wall. Various people snuck glances at her before they proceeded to go to the cashier or to the changing room. She could practically hear the questions buzzing through their mind. _Where are her parents? Why is she paying for everything? Where is the adult?_ If only they knew that she was actually considered an adult back home.

She let out a little sigh and glanced at the shelf. Once the whole dress thing was sorted, they would need to find a proper sleeping attire for Eri. Something comfortable, of course but something cute too. _Eri-chan loves cats._ Naruto hummed and bobbed her head before lowering her shoulders just a little bit.

She should get cat-patterned pajamas for Eri-chan.

_Anything will be better than the current outfit that she has._ Naruto’s fingers twitched and the whiskered teen allowed a single breath to escape from her lips. Once Eri was safe from Overhaul or once she get enough clothes for her young ward, she was going to rip that white dress and set it in flames.

She would destroy anything that would hurt this young, innocent child.

The curtains rustled and Naruto tore her eyes away from the shelf, choosing instead to focus all of her attention on the changing room. For the first time in years, she felt her heart fluttering with happiness at the sight of Eri twirling her dress around like an excited child. _This is how kids should act._ She made her way to the little girl and let out a little hoarse laugh when the little girl tried to tackle her into a hug.

“Eri-chan loves her dress?” Naruto asked, combing through Eri’s hair. There were some tangles in her hair but that was fine. It just meant that she had to try and perfect her combing skills. _Maybe I should learn how to do other hairstyles on her._ Pigtails and ponytails were nice but little girls could be cruel when it come to appearances.

The little girl bobbed her head and flashed her a smile. “Yes!”

“Well I’m glad because Eri-chan looks so pretty,” Naruto declared with a grin. “You look like a little princess, don’t ya?”

Red eyes widened and Eri bit her lips. “D-Do you really think that Eri-chan is a little princess?”

“You’re my little princess!” Naruto tickled the little girl and felt her throat tightening just a little bit when the girl let out several giggles. This was great. This was what she wanted to hear from the little girl. Laughter. The laughter was enough to ease the ache inside of her heart. It should be enough to make her relax but her heart was still numb.

Why was her heart still refusing to flutter with the knowledge that she was still needed?

_Maybe if I just work hard enough then I’ll get it to flutter again._ She nodded and flashed a smile to the smiling girl. Maybe, she just needed to help more people to get that feeling again. The whiskered teen paused as a pair of furious, hurt green eyes flashed before her eyes. For a brief moment, her chest tightened and the whiskered teen shook her head.

“Can Eri-chan get more clothes?”

Naruto grinned.

  
“Of course!”

* * *

_“I won’t be coming home on Thursday.”_

His words sliced through the air and Shouto kept his gaze fixed on his father. For the first time since he started high school, his father had finally decided to grace him with his presence. The last few days had been great. He could focus on his training without Endeavor breathing down his neck and demanding for him to use his left side. It had been easier for him to read his comics without his father ranting about how he was wasting his time by reading such childish things.

Unfortunately, his string of good days had come to an end.

“Why?” Enji lowered his bowl of rice and fixed his turquoise eyes at him. Shouto could see the irritation coloring his father’s eyes and a flutter of joy crept up into his stomach. It always did whenever he saw the irritation in his father’s eyes. There was nothing in this world that could threaten a smile out of his lips except for the irritation in his father’s eyes.

Shouto schooled his expression and lifted up his bowl as his sister and brother exchanged glances. He could see the subtle suspicion in his sister’s eyes as if she was uncertain about whether he was being serious about this or not. Natsuo, on the other hand, looked at him like he couldn’t believe for one moment that he would want to spend time outside of this house.

“I’ll be doing a project with a classmate.” He kept his tone even and calm even when his father narrowed his eyes at him. _By the way, you shouldn’t correct your parents if they ask you if I’m a boy._ A soft husky voice echoed in his ear and Shouto grimaced. Right, he would have to pretend that his female classmate was a male if he wanted to escape from his house. “And he can only do the project on Thursdays.”

Fuyumi eyed him like she knew that this was an excuse that he had conveniently made up. It was not an excuse. He was just lucky to have a classmate who somehow understood that he didn’t want to be in the same house as his father. If his classmate hadn’t give him an excuse then he would be stuck at home with Endeavor.

“Can’t your classmate come here to do the project?” His father regarded him. “I want to see who is your competition in school.”

_Must everything be a competition for you?_ He bit his tongue and balled his hands into a fist. One wrong word and there would be a chance that his father wouldn’t give him this opportunity. _I can break the rules and just spend the night over there but Fuyumi won’t hear the end of it from him._ As much as he desired freedom from the asshole, he did not want Fuyumi to get scolded by Endeavor.

“He has to take care of his little sister.” His sister’s eyes softened and whatever doubt that Fuyumi had, seemed to have disappeared with his words. His father, on the other hand, looked almost unconvinced by the fact that his classmate had a sister. _Even if she didn’t have a sibling, I’m never going to bring her here._ She did not need to see how messy his family could be.

A fake smile flashed before his eyes and the male bobbed his head.

Uzumaki did not need to know how messy his family life can be.

“Does it have to be on Thursday?” Enji demanded.

Shouto kept his expression blank and bobbed his head. “That is the only day he has off.”

His father inspected him for a good couple of minutes. Suspicion still colored his eyes like he was trying to figure out whether or not that it was convenient that he had excuses for why he couldn’t come back home. The air crackled and vibrated with tension but his father did not say a word as if he actually did believe his flimsy excuse about Uzumaki only having that day off.

“What is your classmate’s name?” Enji finally asked. Shouto blinked and darted his eyes to his sister. Was it normal for their father to make that kind of request? Up until Middle School, he would do his projects in the library or in his classmate’s room but not once did he have a classmate offer him some form of refugee from his family.

His sister shook her head and looked as stupefied as him.

“Uzumaki Naruto.”

His father blinked and blinked before swirling his head to Fuyumi. His older sister frowned, looking almost stupefied at the knowledge that he had a classmate with that last name. Shouto glanced at his brother and frowned when Natsuo gazed at him with unreadable eyes. Was there something that he was missing? He couldn’t exactly tell.

“Any relations to Uzumaki Eisuke?” His father’s tone held a little hint of curiosity.

Shouto stared at his father for a good couple of seconds before shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t know if he is related to him. Uzumaki didn’t talk about his family except for the fact that he has a little sister to take care of.”

Fuyumi fiddled with her hands and cleared her throat. Shouto turned his head to stare at his sister, who seemed to be shifting back and forth in her seat. His sister kept darting her eyes to the photo of Touya before looking back at their father. Even though his sister had been the one to raise him, he couldn’t tell what was going through her mind.

“Uzumaki is a common name now,” Fuyumi commented. “And Tomo-chan says that they come from a very big family.”

Enji darted his eyes to the young woman. “You should ask that friend of yours if she has any relatives with that name.”

Shouto kept his expression blank and gazed at his older sister. She looked almost tightly wounded as if that was the only request from their father that she did not want to do. _Who is Tomo-chan?_ He darted his eyes to Natsuo and his frown deepened when he saw the seething rage in his brother’s eyes. Was there something that he was missing?

Why were they reacting in that way?

“Tomo-chan is either always studying or working in the hospital.” His sister informed their father with an even and surprisingly calm tone. “If you want to know if they are related then you have more luck with Eisuke-kun.”

His father scowled and looked almost like a petulant child while Fuyumi blinked before shaking her head. Shouto could only stare at his older sister with wide eyes. Did his sister actually sound upset with their father? His older sister had always been nervous whenever it came to their father. Not once could he ever recall his sister talking to their father with that tone.

The heterochromatic-haired boy took a deep breath and sipped on his water. “Who is Uzumaki Tomoyo? And Eisuke?”

His sister jolted and darted her eyes at him while Natsuo stared at him for the longest time. Shouto rubbed the back of his neck and kept his gaze on the plates. Should he have kept his mouth shut? It seemed like it would have been a good idea. He took a deep breath and lifted his chopsticks, waiting for at least one of his siblings or even Endeavor to answer him.

“Touya-niisan didn’t have many friends but Eisuke-kun was probably the only friend that Touya-niisan had.” Natsuo’s tone was cold, almost unfeeling and Shouto directed his gaze to his older brother. “Tomoyo is Fuyumi-neechan’s best friend. Both Eisuke and Tomoyo are first cousins.”

Fuyumi nodded and her eyes flickered to the photo of Touya before shaking her head. Shouto did not miss the way that his sister looked at the photo with some semblance of longing before quickly hiding her feelings again. _She probably wishes Touya-niisan was here too._ Natsuo, Fuyumi and Touya had always been closer to each other.

He had and probably would always be the outsider when it came to his siblings.

“Does it matter if my classmate is related to them?” Shouto lowered his chopsticks and looked at the food with blank eyes before looking at his father. The red-haired man regarded him for the longest time but for the first time in his life, he did not feel like Endeavor was actually looking at him. It felt like his father was in another time and place.

After a couple of seconds, Enji cleared his throat and picked up his meal. “No.”

That was the end of their conversation and they ate in silence, never bringing up the topic about his deceased brother or his friend. It was normal. This was something that should be expected because they liked to ignore the topic but for the first time in his life, he wanted to know about his deceased brother and his friends.

But it was never his place to question them.

* * *

_“Naruto-neechan, that boy looks almost like you!”_

Naruto blinked and followed Eri’s finger. The young girl was pointing to a familiar ashy-blond haired boy, who seemed to be arguing with a woman with a similar hair color to him. _That must be his mother._ She had never met Bakugou’s parents but from what she heard from her classmates, her classmate looked like his mother.

She slipped on a smile when her classmate turned his body away from his mother and turned his body in her direction. His vermillion eyes widened for a brief second as if he couldn’t believe for a single second that she would be in the mall. If anyone should have that kind of reaction then it should be her. Not once did she think she would run into her classmate here.

“Whiskers.” Bakugou cleared his throat and darted his eyes to Eri. The little girl just stared at him with wonder before looking back at her with curious eyes. _Naruto-neechan, can you explain why you look similar to him?_ That seemed to be the question burning through those red eyes and she just stared at the floor.

  
How could she explain the concept of coincidences to Eri-chan?

She shook her head and blinked when she saw Bakugou’s mother gazing at her with wide eyes. The woman looked at her like she was seeing a ghost. The woman trembled and darted her eyes to Bakugou before shifting her gaze back at her. Maybe it would be a good idea for her to take her leave. There was no need for her to do the whole boring small talk nonsense.

But Eri-chan was looking at her and she had to set a decent example for Eri-chan until she dealt with Overhaul. Once the man was gone then she could hand her over to Aizawa-sensei and then…

_“Can you really give Eri-chan to Aizawa? For all you know, he might send her to an orphanage and that would give Eri-chan the message that you don’t care about her.”_ Her chest tightened and the whiskered teen took a deep breath. There was still time for her to think of a reasonable solution, a solution where her charge could have a happy childhood.

A solution that would not scar this little girl.

“Explosive Head.” Naruto cleared her throat and glanced at Bakugou’s mother. She kept the smile on her face and allowed the automatic cheerfulness to leak out of her voice. “Hi, Mrs. Bakugou!”

The blond-haired woman made no comment. Her eyes seemed fixated on her hair and was now moving steadily down to her blue eyes. There was almost a sense of mournfulness in those eyes as if she reminded her of someone dear to her. It was odd to have that kind of stare being directed at her. There had been only one other person, who had given her that stare.

_“What a pretty name for a pretty girl.”_

Her heart throbbed and Naruto shook her head.

“Katsuki.” Bakugou’s mother cleared her throat and stared at Bakugou with eyes burning with curiosity and amusement. “You never told me that this Whiskers was a girl and you certainly didn’t tell me that your friend was cute.”

Naruto ducked her head and rubbed the back of her neck as Eri gazed at her with curious eyes. _I shouldn’t feel flustered when someone compliments me._ There had been people who complimented her before but they always wanted something from her. The men coming in and out of the café, complimented her because she flirted with them.

They complimented her with the hopes that she would go on a date with them, hoping that they could brag to their friends about finally getting a date out of her. _But what does this woman gain from complimenting her? Because Explosive Head looks ready to throttle his mother for her implication._ She couldn’t blame him.

Neither of them saw each other in that sense and while she had no idea why Bakugou felt that way, she had her own reasons. Bakugou was an asshole, sometimes a tolerable asshole but there was something about him that made her skin crawl. Even when her female classmates discussed about dating Bakugou, acid would rise up to her throat.

There was something wrong about dating him.

“Whiskers isn’t my friend!” Bakugou growled. “And why the fuck—”

“—Language! There is a child present!” Naruto and Bakugou’s mother barked. The blond-haired boy blinked stupidly while Naruto exchanged glances with Bakugou’s mother. The blond-haired woman stared at her with faint amusement before shaking her head. The smile on her face faded and there was almost a thoughtful, contemplating look on the woman’s face.

The blond-haired teen rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Fine! Why would I tell you if Whiskers is cute or not? It doesn’t matter.”

“Must you always scream like a madman?” She grumbled. Her classmate shrugged and the whiskered teen darted her eyes to Eri. The white-haired girl was trembling and while she didn’t have a mind-reading Quirk, Naruto had no doubt in her mind that the little girl was experiencing some kind of flashback. “You’re scaring my little sister.”

The blond-haired male flinched but did not attempt to apologize for his behavior. Why would he? The words _I’m sorry_ did not seem to exist in her classmate’s dictionary. He only grunted and stared at Eri, who was now clinging onto her pants. Suspicion began to color his eyes and the older male thinned his lips at her.

“I thought you were an orphan.”

Naruto tightened her jaw and ignored the sensation burning through her chest. She took several deep breaths and stared at Eri, who looked at her with curiosity. Did Eri-chan know what it means to be an orphan? She was young and children here grew up differently. They seemed to be more… _innocent_ and that was a good thing.

“I am.” Naruto replied with a fake cheer to her tone. She glanced at Eri and then looked at Mitsuki. The blond-haired woman stared at her with such sad, _pitying_ eyes. She hated it. Why would she give her those eyes? There was no need for her to be sad. This was normal. Absolutely normal in Konoha but not so much here. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a sister.”

Mitsuki stared at her. “You’re an orphan?”

People kept strolling through the crowded floor and Naruto stared at the woman with a tiny frown. Why was the woman repeating the same fact? They already established the fact that she was an orphan. _Maybe she has never met an orphan before?_ That could also explain the intense sadness coloring the woman’s eyes.

“Yeah but it isn’t a big deal,” Naruto replied with a laugh. “You can’t miss something that you never had.”

The sadness in those eyes intensified while Bakugou looked at her like she was an absolute idiot for saying those words to his mother. She coughed and rubbed the back of her neck. It was stupid. Completely stupid because now there was a hole in her story, but the woman looked like she wanted to cry and well…she thought this would calm her down.

_“You still have that stupid habit! You think if you smile and laugh then his mother would like you?”_ The dark voice hissed inside of her ear. _“You did the whole smile and laugh thing in Team Seven and what did you gain from it? Did Sakura-chan actually like you when you acted the way she wanted you to act? You’re pathetic.”_

Naruto balled her hands into a fist and shoved the voice back into the wardrobe. She took a deep breath and flashed a smile to the woman while ignoring the narrowed eyes of her classmate. It was clear he despised her and maybe he despised her even more for making his mother’s upset. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he was a Mama’s boy.

“It still must have been a very painful loss for you,” Bakugou’s mother commented with a quiet tone. She flickered her eyes to the bags and bags of children clothes in her arms. The woman seemed to be torn and there seemed to be a question buzzing through her eyes. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and blinked when the woman offered her a hesitant smile. “My mother would tell you that even if you never knew them, it doesn’t mean that you can’t miss your parents.”

Bakugou grunted. “Grams would also tell ya that you shouldn’t interfere with people’s personal business.”

“Your grandmother would also tell you that you need to learn some empathy, young man!” His mother barked. “And I’m not interfering with your classmate’s business!”

_Yup, Explosive Head got his personality from his mother._ She shook her head and stared at Eri. The little girl kept gazing at the two blonds like they were a scene from a movie. Maybe they were a scene from a movie. God knew, it was surreal to witness the whole child arguing with their parent in public.

She shook her head and stared at Eri before shaking her head.

_One day, Eri-chan can have that kind of relationship and maybe even experienced it._

She was going to make sure that Eri-chan get the life and experience that she deserved.

* * *

**_(Undisclosed location)_ **

_“Have you located Eri?”_

Hari leaned against the wall and rubbed the sides of his head as he stared at his subordinate. He tried to keep his eye focused on the man and not on the blood splattered walls behind his subordinate. The hallway reeked of blood but it was expected. The moment that they came back and were informed of Eri’s disappearance act, was the moment that his boss lost control.

The blood on the wall was the subordinate, who had been stupid enough to confess that he failed to locate the girl. _She shouldn’t have gone far but the fact that one of our subordinates is dead, means we’re dealing with someone that lacks morals._ His fingers itched and his nose continued to burn with that metallic pungent.

It was problematic that the usual excuse for Eri’s behavior, had not been enough to allow the girl to come back to them.

“We haven’t manage to locate her.” His subordinate admitted. The man looked at the blood-stained walls and glanced down to the intestines that clung to the floor. _We would need to get that cleaned up before Kai comes out of his room._ So much work and they had so little time when he thought about it. “B-But I did manage to hack into the camera systems and there was a point when I saw Eri being carried away by a female.”

“A female?”

His subordinate nodded and like an enthusiastic puppy, he shoved him a couple of still shots. Hari inspected the photos with thinned lips. They were blurry but he could definitely make out the white-hair of Eri. The person carrying her seemed to be female. _But I can’t put an age with this shot._ The only thing that could be made out was the fact that the female seemed to have some kind of whisker marks on her cheek.

Centuries ago, a sight like this would make it easy for them to pinpoint their target but this day and age? It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There could be over a hundred girls with that kind of marking and hair color. _If only she was just a little bit more unique._ They would need to find a blond-haired female with those marking, working or living in a similar area to the one that his subordinate picked out.

“It is hard to believe a female could be so cruel and do that to a person,” his subordinate commented. “You wouldn’t think a woman was capable of killing someone.”

Hari pinched his nose and then rubbed the sides of his head. “Killers can come from either gender! Who gives a fuck if the killer had been a woman? If that woman send Eri to the cops and if Eri tells them about the experiments done on her then the whole operation is fucked! I ordered all of you to make sure that Eri doesn’t run away again but you fucked it up and now Kai is on a murderous rampage.”

The subordinate paled and trembled before looking at the splatters of blood that now stained the wall. It was like a monsterous artwork, one that would grow in size if they did not find Eri in the next couple of days. How the hell did the little girl get so lucky to find someone that would not believe the stories that they made to explain her behavior? _We need to know more about what we’re dealing with._ He exhaled.

The only thing that they could determine was the fact that this woman did not believe in conserving the family unit.

“W-What should we do?”

Hari stared at the blood-stained walls and bobbed his head.

“You’re going to track Eri down and find out if she is in either a witness-protection program or if she is currently with a hero,” Hari barked. “You will bring her back through force and you better not come back here without her or I’ll send you to Kai and have you explained why you came back without the girl.”

His subordinate flinched and scurried out of the hallway and Hari looked down at the photo.

_I’m going to find that bitch and ruin anyone that is close to her before sending her to Kai._

But to do that, he would need to get information on the girl first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter! I always love hearing opinions so please do tell me what you think about this chapter and the changes made to it.


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